Watch: Mikuru Asakura gets into boxing drills to prepare for Floyd Mayweather 

Mikuru Asakura and Floyd Mayweather will step into the boxing ring on September 14, 2022 in an exhibition match.

The Japanese MMA star has vowed he will be the first man to beat Mayweather and use the win to propel himself into stardom on a global level. Now, ahead of his matchup, Asakura has posted some boxing drills to his Instagram.

Standing southpaw, Asakura showed off some crisp padwork with his trainer, working on some slips, dips, and power punches.

Holding a purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Mikuru Asakura competes in the featherweight division and has been active since 2012. With a total of 20 fights, his record stands at 16 wins, 3 losses, and 1 no contest with 8 knockouts. He also has one exhibition win under his belt against Hikaru Saito via TKO back in 2019 for E.P.W. Heroes.

This will be Floyd Mayweather's second time fighting in Japan for an exhibition bout, with his last being against Tenshin Nasukawa in 2018.

See Asakura's padwork here:

---

Mikuru Asakura and his YouTube work

Aside from his notoriety in the ring, Asakura has a large following on YouTube as well. With 2.63 million subscribers, Asakura shares moments of his life including sessions in the gym, trying new foods, and clips from his fights.

With such a large following, all of his videos garner well over a million views each time he posts, even reaching up to 4-5 million a video.

A popular series on his page is Breaking Down, which is an MMA competition show that made its debut in July 2021. It was created by Mikuru Asakura, his brother Kai Asakura, and MMA gym Triforce Asakura owner, Teppei Hori.

The rules are that the strongest man is decided in one round with a duration of one minute. The fighters, who are a mix of professionals and amateurs, have varying backgrounds, with bases in boxing, karate, judo, Nippon Kempo, and sumo.

Currently, Breaking Down has 5 seasons, with the last having just taken place on July 17.

As a very popular figure in Japan, Asakura is looking to make a global statement against Floyd Mayweather on September 14th.

Asakura posted this photo of the most recent Breaking Down series: