Floyd Mayweather has booked his next exhibition bout after knocking out MMA fighter Mikuru Asakura as he will fight YouTube star Deji on November 13 in Dubai, Abbeylivenetwork.com gathered.
Mayweather, 45, retired from professional boxing in 2017 after improving to 50-0 by beating UFC star Conor McGregor but has since made tens of millions by entertaining exhibition bouts. ‘Money’ knocked out Japanese kick-boxer Tenshin Nasukawa a year after his retirement before facing YouTuber Logan Paul last year and former sparring partner Don Moore in May.
Mirror Fighting reported that talks of a fight between Mayweather and Deji were underway, but the exhibition has now been officially confirmed for November 13. Global Titans Fight Series, who also promoted Mayweather’s fight against Moore, will host the event which takes place at the Coca-Cola Arena, which can hold up to 17,000 fans.
“Huge thanks to Global Titans and my team for creating this incredible opportunity,” Deji said in a press release today. “It’s a privilege to be headlining this phenomenal spectacle in Dubai, against the all-time great Floyd Mayweather. This is going to be fun!”
Mayweather added: “I am delighted to bring this incredible boxing experience to Dubai. Global Titans will give fans an unrivalled boxing match with a huge undercard. It is an honour to be a part of such an iconic event in an iconic city, and I would like to thank the Global Titans team for reaching out to me and giving back so much to the sport I love.”
Deji, the brother of YouTuber KSI, picked up his first boxing win last month by stopping Yusef ‘Fousey’ Erakat on the undercard of his brother’s event last month. Deji lost his first three fights at white-collar level, being knocked out by Jake Paul in 2018 and model Vinnie Hacker in 2021, suffering his third defat by split-decision to fellow YouTuber Alex Wassabi earlier this year.
Before the fight was officially announced, Mayweather confirmed the rumours when he told TMZ: “I have an exhibition with a hell of a fighter from Japan. He’s big in [MMA] and he’s also big on YouTube. Then I have one with the guy Deji, we will be doing an exhibition in Dubai at the Coca-Cola Arena and that’s in November.”
Mayweather is set to earn another multi-million dollar payday for fighting Deji after pocketing between $15-$20 million for his fight against Asukara. The ring legend has said that at this point in his career he has no interest in legitimate professional bouts, which is why he is competing in exhibition fights. KSI admits that he never would have thought his brother would fight Mayweather and is extremely proud of him after suffering defeat in his first three fights.
“My man just leaped past all of them and went ‘yeah, I’m fighting Mayweather now’,” KSI said on his YouTube channel. “If he pulls this off then f*** me man, what is this world? What is this world? If you told me ten years ago, five years ago, two years ago that Deji was going to be fighting Mayweather I’d have laughed in your face. Mate, what a f***ing W.”
