Is “Tank” really going to fight Tenshin?

Floyd Mayweather says it’s so, but it’s hard to believe.

Wait, what?

C’mon now, seriously?

Did my ears lie to me? Did Floyd Mayweather, the fighter on hiatus/promoter, just say that his guy Gervonta Davis would for his next fight take on Tenshin Nasukawa, the Japanese kickboxer who Floyd made cry when they engaged in a New Year’s Eve exhibition bout in Japan last month?

Nonsense, I say.

Mark this column, and tell me I’m a fool if it pans out as so, but what would be the impetus for Nasukawa, contracted to the RIZIN organization, to take on Davis, whether in exhibition or any other form?

Money? Money might matter enough to the guy, I guess, but why would Tenshin sign on to get whupped again by another ace pugilist? Seriously, unless there’s something I am not privy to, like maybe Tenshin is really not liked by the RIZIN bosses, there’s not enough reasons for the Japanese fighter to take this challenge.

Can you come up with reasons why he would — and for that matter, why Gervonta would?

Let’s go over this.

Abner Mares was supposed to fight Gervonta and would have, on paper, given the 24-year-old Baltimore product his stiffest test to date. But he suffered an eye injury, a detached retina, and was pulled from the bout. Hugo Ruiz got put in in his stead, and was in over his head. Ruiz, age 32, talked a pretty solid game, barking and growling that he’d be giving Gervonta the business. But he’d been selected for a reason, and it was to man the dunking booth.

Ruiz had been stopped three times in his four losses, and two fights ago, he’d campaigned at 122. 122 to 130, no big deal? Yes big deal. Think of it this way: imagine if they’d put someone who’d just fought at welterweight in against GGG, a two weight class jump. Yes, the number of pounds is less, but the ratio is still bad news bears for the 122 guy coming up. You saw the result. He couldn’t handle the power. So it was mission accomplished for Team Tank. He looks like a killer, and appetites are whetted, notwithstanding the severely clunky “Thriller” intro dance which had Davis looking like he’d just noticed he had TP stuck to his boxing boot as he walked to the ring.

So to keep up the momentum from the whack-out of Ruiz, instead of, say, hopping right onto another card, maybe the March 9 Shawn Porter slate, right back at the ex-StubHub Center, he will instead fight an exhibition?

Against a guy who is completely damaged goods, in Tenshin — and he’d need to KO the guy quicker than Mayweather did or people would compare him unfavorably to Floyd?

”We talking about May, if that’s OK with him. But he got an exhibition bout with the guy Tenshin, in April, in an exhibition bout in Japan,” said Mayweather, after the win over Ruiz. “April is Tenshin and then May is the real fight.”

Nope. Not gonna hap’n, cap’n. Really, unless there’s reasoning I’m not getting, or some secret terms of a contract I’m not privy to.

Perhaps you all could instead suggest some options, what you’d like to see next for Davis, because truly, these powers that be need to hear from you, you all need to speak your minds and tell them what you need to see. Otherwise, they will keep giving you what THEY want you to see, and therefore too often we are fed matchups that are more so crafted by the marketing rather than the matchmaking department. And for the record, this advice applies to all the fans and all the promoters. Too much marketing going on, not enough old school best vs the best matchmaking happening.