Floyd Mayweather announces UK exhibition fight at London’s O2 Arena against Muay Thai fighter Liam Harrison on same date as Jake Paul vs Tommy Fury, but Harrison denies bout is happening

Floyd Mayweather has announced that he will finally stage a fight in the UK next month, but his opponent has since ruled himself out of the contest.

The retired 50-0 boxing legend is now travelling the world for big-money exhibition contests and, despite never boxing in England during his pro career, Floyd said on Friday that he will have a bout against Liam Harrison on February 25 at the O2 Arena in London.

Harrison is a 37-year-old Muay Thai fighter and former kickboxing world champion from Leeds.

For large portions of his career, he has based himself out of Thailand and built a record of 117 fights, 90 wins (50 KOs), 25 losses and two draws.

Mayweather, 45, announced the fight on Instagram on Friday morning.

The boxing legend uploaded the poster out of the blue, taking fans (and Harrison) by surprise.

He captioned it: “London February 25, It’s official. My first exhibition fight in the UK will be at the O2 Arena. Tickets go on sale next week. Stay Tuned!!”

Harrison quickly responded on his own Facebook page, announcing that he is not fighting Mayweather after all.

“Many of you will have seen the announcement this morning about my fight against Floyd Mayweather,” Harrison wrote.

“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 with 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.

“Furthermore, no contract for this had 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 Muay Thai community.

“I’m seriously flattered to have even be approached for this fight and I really think I could have done well in it. 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.”

The date of February 25 will certainly raise some eyebrows.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Jake Paul vs Tommy Fury is once again a done deal.

The planned date for that fight is February 25 in Saudi Arabia.

If it gets confirmed and Mayweather does find a new opponent, this could cause an unfortunate clash given that previous main events in Saudi have typically started around the same time as UK main events do.

The first of Mayweather’s post-retirement exhibitions came in Japan on New Year’s Eve 2018, when he knocked out kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa.

After a break, Mayweather stepped back through the ropes once more in 2021 and went eight-rounds with social media star Logan Paul.

In 2022, he was far more active with three exhibition fights.

Floyd began in May with a bout in Abu Dhabi, UAE, in which he beat up his former sparring partner Don Moore.

Then, in September, he returned to Japan and KOd MMA fighter Mikuru Asakura.

In November he made his third appearance of the year and stopped social media star Deji in Dubai, UAE.

Now, Mayweather will make his UK debut on February 25, albeit seemingly not against Harrison.