The legendary Floyd Mayweather Jr. is gearing up for another exhibition boxing match this weekend against former RIZIN title challenger Mikuru Asakura, but few people seem to be buying into the legitimacy of the fight.
This includes none other than Chael Sonnen, who believes Mayweather is entering another cash-grab scenario that he’s scripted to win. Sonnen, alongside many other combat pundits, are finding it difficult to believe Mayweather is actually fighting in a competitive nature. Remember, Mayweather’s unexpected clash with kickboxing sensation Tenshin Nasukawa back at RIZIN 14 in 2018 raised some red flags after “Money” won the contest via knockout in just over two minutes. The knockout sequence was suspect to say the least.
In addition, Sonnen also believes that Mayweather is fibbing about the $20 million he’s claiming to be getting this weekend in Japan.
“Floyd is claiming he’s gonna get $20 million for this — I call it ‘rassling because they’re not actually [fighting] — but whatever they’re getting ready to do in Japan, whatever that is that’s going to look like boxing, he’s getting $8 million,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “Now, eight is a beautiful number. But he claimed he was getting 20. So I feel because I know the real number, that I can’t let it go. I must come to you guys. I have a journalistic obligation to come and inform you it’s actually $8 million and he’s exaggerating.
“He going to do something — exhibition? They’re calling it something. He’s doing ‘little guys that are terrible.’ He’s getting good exposure making a bunch of money and he’s having a really good time. All of those things bother me. I don’t want him having a good time. No fighter gets to have fun. No fighter that’s 40 years old that isn’t doing actual fights, only pretending to go against terrible competition that can barely sell … I mean these guys can barely even pretend that they’re knocked out. It’s not all that good. They don’t get to have fun and make millions of dollars.”
Sonnen is also under the assumption that Mayweather’s exhibition bouts are somehow scripted to set him up to succeed. While the 45-year-old retired fighter is still good enough to actually beat the guys he’s facing, Sonnen believes Mayweather isn’t doing much for these contests because the outcome is already decided.
“Floyd’s going to go make $8 million to not actually compete with a guy who if he did compete with he would destroy in 30 seconds,” Sonnen said. “Other people that are actually willing to fight, not call it an exhibition, not go out for eight rounds, not shorten the time limits to two a piece instead of three … can’t make a 10th of that. Why would I tease Floyd? Doesn’t it sound like Floyd’s the one that figured it out?
“If Floyd can go in there and get $8 million for whatever that is and he doesn’t have to work very hard, he doesn’t have to train at all because the script is on his side and they’ve already told him who’s going down and when, isn’t that something I’d want to emulate? Floyd’s gonna go over to Dubai, he’s gonna do something after this, which will represent the second time that he’s done that, and he’s going to get millions of dollars. I don’t know, I think in Dubai, they’re actual competition, they’re just with bums. Those might also be scripted like the stuff he’s doing in Japan, I don’t actually know that, I haven’t got to see one, they’re like little private events.”
Say what you will about Mayweather’s post-career ventures, but the guy is banking loads of cash for doing pretty much nothing. “Money” gets treated like a king when he travels to these foreign lands and never runs the risk of actually getting beat. Who are we to question Mayweather’s genius setup?
“This is his second time going back [to Japan],” Sonnen said. “People use Floyd once, they get their ass kicked and they don’t go back to him. It was a terrible deal. These guys are. They paid him $8 million, gave him a script, bringing him back again, giving him $8 million, have him read the script.”