Sonnen explains Mayweather’s “scripted” exhibitions

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 believe the fight’s legitimacy.

That includes none other than Chael Sonnen, who believes Mayweather is entering another cash grab scenario he’s set to win. Sonnen, along with many other combat experts, has a hard time believing that Mayweather is actually fighting in a competitive character. Remember, Mayweather’s unexpected clash with kickboxing sensation Tenshin Nasukawa raised some red flags at RIZIN 14 in 2018 after “Money” won the contest by knockout in just over two minutes. The KO sequence was suspect to say the least.

Also, Sonnen believes Mayweather is cheating on the $20 million he’s reportedly getting in Japan this weekend.

“Floyd claims he’ll get $20 million for it – I call it ‘rascal’ because they actually aren’t [fighting] — but whatever they’re up to in Japan, whatever boxing looks like, he’ll get $8 million,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “Well, eight is a nice number. But he claimed he would get 20. So I feel like I can’t let it go because I know the real number. I have to come to you. I have a journalistic duty to come to you and tell you that it is indeed $8 million and he is exaggerating.

“He’s going to do something – exhibition? you name it something. He makes “little guys who are awful”. He gets good attention, makes a lot of money and has a really good time. All of these things bother me. I don’t want him enjoying himself. No fighter is having fun. Not a 40 year old fighter who doesn’t actually fight but just pretends to be up against horrible competition who are struggling to sell… I mean these guys can hardly pretend to be knocked out. It’s not so good. They don’t have the opportunity to have fun and make millions of dollars.”

Sonnen also posits that Mayweather’s exhibition fights are somehow written to make him successful. While the 45-year-old retired fighter is still good enough to actually beat the guys he faces, Sonnen believes Mayweather isn’t doing much for these contests as the outcome is already decided.

“Floyd’s going to make $8 million not to really compete with a guy that he would destroy in 30 seconds if he competed with him,” Sonnen said. “Other people who are actually willing to fight, don’t call it an exhibition, don’t go eight laps out, don’t cut the time limits down to two instead of three… can’t make a tenth out of that. Why would I tease Floyd? Doesn’t it sound like Floyd was the one who found 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 it’s going down and.” when, isn’t that something I want to emulate? Floyd is going to go to Dubai, he’s going to do something after that, which will be the second time he’s done it, and he’s going to get millions of dollars. I don’t know, I think in Dubai they’re real competition, they’re just with bums. They could also be scripted like the things he does in Japan, I don’t really know, I don’t have to see them, they’re like little private events.”

Say what you will about Mayweather’s post-career ventures, but the guy did a ton of money for pretty much nothing. “Money” is treated like royalty as he travels to these foreign lands and is never in danger of actually being beaten. Who are we to question Mayweather’s awesome setup?

“This is his second time returning [to Japan]’ said Sun. “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, brought him back, gave him $8 million, let him read the script.”