Boxer Floyd Mayweather’s upcoming fight against unbeaten Japanese kickboxing sensation Tenshin Nasukawa in late December is “a great business move” that will earn him “easy money”, according to British fighter Amir Khan.
In an interview with Arabian Business, Khan – who has previously been critical of boxers taking opponents from other disciplines – said that Mayweather “is a great businessman.”
“He feels he’s proven himself in boxing and he can now fight whoever and no one can ever question that,” he said. “Him going into a kickboxing fight, but with boxing rules, obviously favours him more.”
Khan added that he believes the fight “is a great business move.”
“Are people silly enough to go out there and buy that fight? I don’t now, but I think they probably will,” he said. “Just to see what Mayweather has got left in him.”
However, Khan said he believes the fight between the 41-year old Mayweather and Nasukawa is likely to be “a mismatch” that is unlikely to be truly competitive.
“They’ll probably promote the fight as saying that this young kid [Nasukawa] is the next big thing and that he’s beaten up everyone, like they promoted the McGregor fight,” he said. “If you look on paper, it was a mismatch, but people promoted and talked about that fight like it was a 50-50 fight. It’s all about money and selling it to the people.”
Khan, however, added that he admires Mayweather’s – who in 2018 was named by Forbes as the world’s highest paid athlete for a fourth time in seven years – business acumen.
“[He is] the best businessman out there. That’s one thing I could probably take away from him, how he’s done business all his life and how smart he’s been, taking the right fights at the fight time and not taking the big, risky fights,” he said. “He’ll walk away from this with like $100 million. Easy money.”
Khan was in Dubai to announce his new role as brand ambassador for Berkeley Assets, a private equity firm with offices in Dubai and London.
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