Floyd Mayweather Jr says he’s returning to the ring in 2021 for “something big” in Japan in the 55,000 seat Tokyo Dome. The still-popular former five-division world champion fought in Japan in 2018, wiping out a badly over-matched kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa in a first-round knockout.
There’s a lot of speculation about who the opponent will be for the 43-year-old Mayweather’s next exhibition. The way that Mayweather has been downplaying Manny Pacquiao’s potential fight against former UFC star Conor McGregor suggests that they might be looking to fight the Irish star again.
It’ll be a tough sell for Mayweather if he chooses to fight the 32-year-old McGregor again, as the fans already saw the outcome of their high-priced pay-per-view event in 2017.
Mayweather coasted for nine dull rounds in slow-motion before stopping McGregor in the tenth. It wasn’t competitive or even slightly exciting. The fans who paid $100 per household to watch this farce weren’t happy afterward with the outcome.
‘Tokyo, Japan, I’m coming back in 2021,” said Mayweather on social media about another exhibition match.
“I know the Olympics is in Japan in 2021, but me myself, Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather, and my team will be doing something big in the Tokyo Dome. Japan, I’m on my way,” said Mayweather
If Mayweather wants to bring in many pay-per-view buys, he needs to take a risk by fighting an active boxer, not an MMA guy with no boxing experience.
The fans would like to see Mayweather take on one of these fighters:
- Jermell Charlo
- Terence Crawford
- Manny Pacquiao
- Keith Thurman
- Errol Spence Jr
- Shawn Porter
- Canelo Alvarez
- Gennadiy Golovkin
In a clear sign that boxing fans are losing interest in Mayweather, his latest announcement for a comeback in 2021 in Japan has attacked very little excitement from people.
Mayweather’s popularity is deteriorating for several reasons. Most importantly, Mayweather hasn’t been fighting enough to stay popular, so he’s being forgotten by the boxing fans that know him. The younger fans have never seen Mayweather fight, and they’re not interested in seeing him fight MMA guys in exhibition matches.
Another important reason why fans aren’t excited about Mayweather exhibition fights is that he’s only facing MMA guys with no boxing background.
Mayweather might as well be picking a pro golfer because his matches have no sporting value. They’re celebrity matches and little more than visual junk food that is immediately forgotten.
When you’re selling circus-level fights of no sporting value, you can only go to the well so many times before dries out.
If Mayweather’s exhibition fights were priced affordably and provided entertainment, there might be more interest, but the fans have caught on with these mismatches’ theme.