Floyd Mayweather’s Brit opponent pulls out of 02 fight just HOURS after announcement and reveals he is ‘heartbroken’
LIAM HARRISON has denied that will be taking on Floyd Mayweather.
It was announced this morning that the boxing legend would be making his British debut with an exhibition showdown against Harrison on February 25 at The O2.
Money, who will turn 46 the day before the bout was scheduled to take place, seemingly confirmed the news on Instagram by sharing the official poster for the event.
He captioned it with: “#London February 25th, It’s official. My first exhibition fight in the UK will be at the O2 Arena Tickets go on sale next week. Stay Tuned!!”
But Harrison, who is contracted to MMA promotion ONE, rubbished the announcement just hours later.
He wrote on social media: “Many of you will have seen the announcement this morning about my fight with Floyd Mayweather.
“Devastatingly, my knee just won’t allow it. Discussions about the fight started a few days ago with the Mayweather team and I honestly thought I would be ok in a boxing fight, even needing surgery on my knee.
“I upped my training as soon as discussions started and had some hard sparring and pads but almost immediately my knee had ballooned up and I can’t walk.
“Hitting pads is fine but the movement and agility needed to spar and especially fight just isn’t possible.
“My surgeon is in agreement that this won’t be possible and I am absolutely heartbroken. This fight and everything that would have come with it would have changed my life.
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“Furthermore, no contract for this has been received or signed. I’m exclusively contracted to ONE and I had approached them for permission and sign off.
“Without receipt of the contract and ONE’s review and approval of this, nothing was confirmed.
“Floyd is the greatest boxer of all time and I would have wanted to put in a good account of myself. Not just for me but for the whole muaythai community…
“I’m seriously flattered to have been even approached for this fight and I really think I could have done well in it.
I really hope when I’m recovered we can make this fight happen
Liam Harrison
“But, as things stand, I’m going to have to stick to my surgery next week.
“I really hope when I’m recovered we can make this fight happen.”
Harrison is a decorated Muay Thai fighter from Leeds.
“The Hitman” has a career record of 90-25-2 (50 KO) in his sport.
Mayweather’s last professional contest came back in 2017 when he moved to 50-0 with a comfortable victory over UFC star Conor McGregor.
But since hanging up the gloves as a pro, he has kept himself busy by raking in millions through exhibition contests.
He has faced Don Moore in Abu Dhabi, Mikuru Asakura in Japan, and Logan Paul in the US.
Then in November, he beat KSI’s brother Deji in Dubai.
The American recently hinted that the UK would be the next stop on his exhibition tour by saying: “In February we’re looking forward to coming here and putting on an exhibition for the fans in the UK, because I never had a chance to come over here and fight when I was actively boxing as a professional.
“So hopefully in February I’ll come over and do an exhibition if it’s possible.”
That came after he previously dropped another hint back in October after he beat MMA veteran Asakura.
He said: “We don’t know [where the rest of my bouts will take place] but of course, if the price is right then I am on my way [to the UK].
“It’s always a few million a minute. From this exhibition [against Asakura] alone I will [be] making somewhere upwards of 15-20million dollars.
“That’s just from this exhibition. So, it’s cool. Nine minutes, 20 million, not bad.”
Although Mayweather never competed in the UK as a pro, he did beat legendary British boxer Ricky Hatton in Las Vegas in 2007.
His other biggest wins came against the likes of Oscar De La Hoya, Juan Manuel Marquez, Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto, Canelo Alvarez, Marcos Maidana and Manny Pacquiao.