MMA Promoter Has Big Plans for Floyd Mayweather

Floyd Mayweather Jr. is planning to compete in another megafight boxing exhibition bout in Japan later this year, and reports coming out of that country over the weekend suggest the fight could come against former boxing world champion Takashi Uchiyama.

News gathered and reported by asianboxing.info revealed the potential exhibition boxing bout between Mayweather and Uchiyama would happen in Japan under the RIZIN Fighting Federation’s promotional banner.

Unlike Mayweather’s previous RIZIN appearance, the proposed boxing bout would pit Mayweather, 43, against a legitimate boxing champion this time around in Uchiyama, though Mayweather would still enjoy a significant size advantage over the longtime junior lightweight champion.

RIZIN Fighting Federation is a Japanese MMA organization that began in 2015 and has become one of the most popular MMA companies in the world over the last five years.

Mayweather won his only other RIZIN bout via first-round stoppage at RIZIN 14 in December 2018.

Takashi Uchiyama Made 11 Straight Title Defenses

Uchiyama, 40, retired after successive losses in 2016.

Before that, though, Uchiyama was the WBA’s junior lightweight champion from 2010 until 2016.

During that span, Uchiyama made 11 straight defenses of his world title at 130 pounds.

According to Japanese combat sports news sites such as efight.jp, Mayweather vs. Uchiyama is the contest RIZIN president Nobuyuki Sakakibara prefers to make this time around over pitting Mayweather against any of the MMA athletes he has on his roster.

Per asianboxing.info:

Uchiyama was a man who never managed to make a major impact outside of Japan. Despite that he was a star at home, the lead face of boxing on TV Tokyo, and man who recorded 11 defenses of the WBA Super Featherweight title. He retired a few years ago but has kept in great shape and looked in fantastic condition last year in an exhibition against Ryoichi Taguchi.

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Floyd Mayweather’s Last RIZIN Bout Came in 2018

Mayweather’s last appearance for RIZIN came in December 2018 against Japanese kickboxing sensation and RIZIN superstar Tenshin Nasukawa.

Mayweather stopped his opponent in just one round. It didn’t help that Tenshin lacked elite professional boxing skills, but it might have been even worse that Mayweather likely outweighed the 125-pound fighter by at least 20 or more pounds on fight night.

Mayweather would also be physically larger than Uchiyama, but the disparity would be less in terms of both physical appearance and world-class boxing skills.

Regardless, Mayweather would be a massive favorite over Uchiyama in the proposed fight. While Uchiyama enjoyed an excellent boxing career in Japan, he never came close to reaching the same heights as Mayweather.

Still, Mayweather vs. Uchiyama would be a massive blockbuster megafight in Japan and would help shine another bright light on RIZIN.

Twitter: @Kelsey_McCarson

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