Was the Floyd Mayweather fight fixed? A closer look at his Tenshin win at RIZIN 14

Floyd Mayweather Jr. flew overseas to collect $9 million for about two minutes of work, which came in the form of a technical knockout victory over Tenshin Nasukawa at the RIZIN 14 event on New Year’s Eve inside Saitama Super Arena in Japan.

After his dominant first-round finish (recap), select combat sports fans were left scratching their heads, somehow perplexed that a 50-0 pugilist with wins over Manny Pacquiao and Canelo Alvarez, just to name a few, could handily dispose of a 20 year-old kickboxer who wasn’t allowed to throw kicks.

Mayweather also held a significant height, weight, and reach advantage.

Most of what I’ve seen online about the fight being fixed stems from Nasukawa’s knockdowns.

The uncharacteristically-aggressive Mayweather has never been known as a power puncher and “Teppen” was launched across the ring with every blow, flopping around on the ground like a freshly-spawned Magikarp.

Let’s face it, in so many ways the fight was rigged. It was created as an exhibition bout to protect Mayweather’s record in case of an unexpected disaster, Nasukawa was prevented from using any kicks, and the contest was only scheduled for three rounds.

And unless he’s Japan’s greatest actor, watching Nasukawa bawl in the ring after his corner threw in the towel tells me that even if his Mayweather fight was fixed, “Teppen” probably didn't get the memo.

For complete RIZIN 14 results and updates click here.