Floyd Mayweather doesn’t take these displays too seriously. He doesn’t have to.
The 45-year-old Hall of Famer is scheduled to take on mixed martial artist Mikuru Asakura in a pay-per-view boxing exhibition on Sunday in Saitama, Japan (US Saturday).
He was asked at a recent press conference how he prepares for such “fights.” He doesn’t do much.
“We didn’t train as much as when we competed,” Mayweather said, referring to his current boxing career. “When we were competing, we were competing against the biggest and best in the sport of boxing.
“Now we do a little. We can train for a few days, let the body rest for a few days, train for a few days, let the body rest for a few days. We don’t really train too much. We really just travel and enjoy life.”
In other words, he could overpower fighters like Asakura in his sleep.
“As for boxing, competing at the highest level,” he said, “I did that for so long that when it came time to go out there and do what I had to do, I got it.”
In fact, Mayweather hopes to bring more than enough to the ring to inflict damage on Asakura, calling this fight “between a jet and a fly.”
“I know this is just an exhibition match,” he said, “but with my one punch I can guarantee you his stomach will swell up like an eggplant.”
For his part, the mostly silent Asakura told Mayweather through a translator: “You talk a lot.”
Mayweather, whose last sanctioned fight was his knockout of Conor McGregor in 2017, has participated in three previous exhibitions. He faced Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa in 2018, YouTuber Logan Paul last year and former sparring partner Don Moore last May.
And Mayweather has said he could take on one more exhibition before the end of the year.
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