Mayweather to stage ‘entertainment’ spectacle in Japan

LOS ANGELES, California: Boxer Floyd Mayweather says his New Year’s Eve bout with Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa will be “all about the entertainment”.

The nine-minute exhibition in Japan will have no official winner or loser if it goes the distance, and Mayweather said at a press availability at his training base in Las Vegas on Thursday that he was looking forward to the event as a chance to sample “something different”.

The contest will take place at the Saitama Prefecture Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, Mayweather said.Saitama is 16 kilometres (10 miles) north of Tokyo.

Mayweather added that there and won’t be any judges present and the bout would not count on the combatants’ official fight records.“It is all about the entertainment,” Mayweather said. “Nine minutes of entertainment .... I’m in the entertainment business.”Besides three-minute rounds, the exhibition will take place at 67kg (147 pounds), feature “traight boxing rules” and eight-ounce boxing gloves.“This will be full contact competition but the bout is not going on boxing or MMA records,” a Mayweather spokesperson said in a news release.