Floyd Mayweather announced that he’s coming out of retirement to fight Tenshin Nasukawa, a 20-year-old Japanese kickboxing star. The fight will take place on New Year’s Eve in Saitama, Japan, and Mayweather will presumably walk away with several millions in his pocket.
But instead of going into detail about his payday, as he often does, Mayweather spoke more about the technical aspects of the fight, in terms of the fighters’ weight difference and what the rules are going to be.
The boxer said all of those things will be figured out very soon, and his main goal is to just entertain the fans.
But a lot of people found the fight announcement strange, including Mayweather’s friend turned enemy 50 Cent.
Not only because a 41-year-old boxer will be fighting a 20-year-old kickboxer on such a big stage, but because this is the second high-profile bout that Mayweather has lined up this year. In September he announced a rematch with Manny Pacquiao on a date to be named later.
“This screams that Mayweather is going broke,” tweeted 50, right after news about the fight in Japan surfaced.
A lot of fight fans also weighed in and said Mayweather’s pockets may not be as full as he claims.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Mayweather isn’t doing as well financially as he would like everyone to believe,” one person wrote. “He has looked desperate in recent months, trying to set up fights with a number of fighters. Even a $300 million dollar payday can go fast if you spend the way he does.”
“A guy spending $18 million dollars on a single watch definitely needs to keep the funds coming in, because at that rate he’s sure to go broke very soon,” another person wrote. “A fool and his money are soon parted.”
“I honestly think Floyd’s running out of money and hasn’t figured out a different way to make more,” a third person commented. “[It’s] kind of sad to see.”
And on Instagram, Fif dissed Mayweather again and suggested he has tax problems.
“Champ fighting a Uber driver before the IRS embarrass him again,” wrote the rapper. “Pay-per-view my ass. We watching this on YouTube.”
Earlier this year, 50 also questioned Mayweather’s motivation to fight Pacquiao again.
“We been knew you finished that money, champ,” he wrote. “We can tell when you start doing club visits.”
