Skip to main content

VIDEO: Floyd Mayweather's bodyguard shoves RIZIN opponent Mikuru Asakura during faceoff

Things are heating up between Floyd Mayweather and Mikuru Asakura.

The two fighters had a tense staredown following a press conference on Tuesday in Hawaii promoting their upcoming boxing exhibition bout. Mayweather and Asakura are scheduled to clash at Rizin 38 on Sept. 25 in Japan.

During their staredown, both fighters got up close and personal, and Mayweather’s bodyguard shoved Asakura after the Japanese star got too close to the former boxing champion.

You can watch their staredown in the video above.

This exhibition bout will be the third such contest for Mayweather following his last professional bout which took place in 2017 against former two-division UFC champion Conor McGregor.

Mayweather’s first foray into exhibition bouts at the conclusion of his pro career came in 2018 against Japanese kickboxing star Tenshin Nasukawa, which took place at Rizin 14. Mayweather knocked Nasukawa down three times in the opening round, prompting his opponent’s corner to throw in the towel.

Mayweather’s second exhibition bout came against YouTuber Logan Paul last June. The fight would see the final bell after eight rounds, although no winner was announced. The most recent exhibition bout took place against former training partner Don Moore in May.

Mayweather was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame this past June, an accomplishment that brought the undefeated professional boxer with 50 wins to tears during his speech.

Asakura (16-3 MMA) has fought under the Rizin banner for his 12 previous professional bouts. The 29-year-old featherweight has not competed in 2022, although he competed three times in 2021, winning the two most recent bouts by defeating Kyohei Hagiwara and Yutaka Saito by unanimous decision. Asakura has eight knockouts in his pro career, with his most recent finish coming against Satoshi Yamasu in the first round.



from MMA Junkie https://ift.tt/Q0LGPTf
via IFTTT
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Burmese fighter: Joshua Van details pioneering journey to plant Myanmar's flag on UFC turf

Joshua Van remembers asking his mother why they had to live in Houston. Why couldn’t they just go back home where things were familiar? He was 12 years old at the time, and Van wanted to go back to where he lived the first decade of his life, in Myanmar. Life wasn’t easy for an undersized pre-teen who spoke little English and was picked on during school for both of those attributes. Looking back, the math adds up that he’d become the first Burmese fighter to compete in the UFC. “I was a small kid,” Van recently told MMA Junkie. “From where I come from, you get picked on. It’s kind of like I fight everyday, and I got to the point where I enjoyed fighting. I watched clips on street fights and how to win street fights. I tried it in my next fight and things like that. That’s what got me into my career.” Van grew up one of five siblings in Myanmar, a country ridden with military and political conflict . When things increasingly worsened, Van’s parents decided to move to Malaysia. Van...
Read more

Video: Oli Thompson lands devastating first-round knockout punch on Aleksei Oleinik in Russia

Aleksei Oleinik returned to action for the first time since his UFC exit, but things did not go in his favor. In the main event of REN TV Fight Club at Dynamo Volleyball Arena in Moscow, Russia, Oleinik (60-17-1 MMA) faced fellow UFC veteran Oli Thompson in a heavyweight bout. The result was a violent finish that left Oleinik staring up at the lights. Thompson (21-16 MMA) unleashed a crushing right hand that sent Oleinik crashing to the canvas with 35 seconds remaining in the opening round. Check out video of the finish below (via Twitter ): Oli Thompson destroys Alexey Oleynik with a massive right hand in the first round pic.twitter.com/AdWy25dQxR — caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) May 26, 2023 Thompson, 43, returned to the win column for the first time since 2020, snapping a four-fight losing skid. His last victory was also a first-round stoppage; a 23-second knockout of Szymon Bajor at Fight Exclusive Night 28 on June 13, 2020. Oleinik, 45, competed in his final UFC bout in Octo...
Read more

Logan Paul, KSI to fight (separately) as part of Misfits Boxing 'The Prime Card'

Logan Paul and KSI will top an upcoming Misfits Boxing card entitled “The Prime Card,” they announced Friday on social media . The event takes place Oct. 14 at AO Arena in Manchester, England and streams on DAZN pay-per-view. Opponents for the two influencers-turned-boxers have not yet been announced. It is unclear if the bouts will be professional or exhibition. Paul, 28, has not competed in a professional boxing match since he fought and lost to  KSI in November 2019. The bout was a rematch of an August 2018 amateur fight which ended in a draw. In June 2021, Paul competed in an exhibition bout against Floyd Mayweather and went all eight rounds in a non-scored bout. While he’s been relatively inactive in boxing, Paul has thrilled fans with his athleticism in intermittent appearances in pro wrestling bouts for WWE. KSI, 30, has competed four times since the pro bout against Paul. All four of those matches were exhibitions. KSI won three of them inside the distance, while a f...
Read more