Floyd Mayweather Jr.?s advisor Leonard Ellerbe was in a talkative if slightly-bemused mood this afternoon as he spoke to the media inside of the Mayweather Boxing Club in Las Vegas, Nevada. Team Mayweather is eyeing a May 5th assignment at the nearby MGM Grand Garden Arena but all signs are now pointing to the reality that a fight with WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao is out of the question.
Pacquiao?s promoter Bob Arum has seemed to come up with a myriad of reasons as to why his fighter can?t meet Mayweather on May 5th, from the severity of the cut he suffered in his November bout with Juan Manuel Marquez to his plans to build a 40,000-seat outdoor venue for such a fight, a construction he claims wouldn?t be complete until at least late May.
If you ask Ellerbe, he will tell you simply that Arum is full of excuses and that a fight with Pacquiao is the only concern to the undefeated Mayweather. Advertisement
Moments before Mayweather Jr. arrived to the facility; Ellerbe had a ten-minute rap session with Yahoo! Sports columnist Kevin Iole and myself and vented some of his frustrations towards the actions of Team Pacquiao, shot down Arum?s ideas on his outdoor venue, weighed in on Mayweather?s delayed 90-day jail sentence, and revealed why they won?t budge from the May 5th date.
This is what Ellerbe had to share?
Where the public was wrong concerning Mayweather?s 90-day jail sentence, initially scheduled for January 6th but later delayed so that he could pursue his May 5th fight? ?Well, this is where I think a lot of people were confused. Several members in the press attacked me. They said ?How dare Ellerbe come out and announce a date when they have a date hanging over their head??. Do you actually think we?re stupid? You know, we have an excellent team of people who know what they?re doing. When we were considering and fighting and we picked our date, the very first thing we did before we ever announced what we were going to do, we went to the district attorney and asked a question ?Will it be ok for us to have a fight on May 5th because of this reason, this reason, and this reason?. And the district attorney said ?Ok?. That?s the only reason I came out with the announcement. I didn?t just jump out there and disrespect the judicial system, saying ?We know aint nothing going down?. That?s just dumb and irresponsible for anybody who wrote that. We know we have some pending allegations and issues that are in front of us, at that particular time, and we dealt with them.?
Mayweather?s desires to face the sport?s best? ?He?s at the level where he?s the top guy in the sport and he wants to make the top fights that are out there. He wants to make the biggest fights out there. We all know who those guys are and in order to generate the kind of revenue that those guys are looking to make, they have to fight one or two people. And one and two should be fighting.?
Surprised at the actions of Bob Arum? ?Doesn?t surprise me at all. It?s just [that] Bob is an excellent businessman. He?s been a great promoter for thirty-plus years and he knows the ins and outs of the sport. He?s very, very, very good at misdirecting the public. Very good at that.?
Whether Pacquiao is to blame for not forcing the issue with Arum on a Mayweather fight? ?I don?t know. This is my opinion, I think that fighters want to fight and all the other stuff in between, you know, I don?t know. You have to ask Manny Pacquiao that question. I think that Floyd has made it abundantly clear that he wants to fight him. So if Manny Pacquiao, in my opinion, is dumb enough to sit back in the wings and allow his situation to be dictated to him, that?s on him. All I can worry about it what we do. That?s all I can worry about. We know we?re going to be fighting on May 5th and we?re going to be fighting in a very, very big fight. That we do know.?
Arum?s insistence to push forward with an outdoor venue for Pacquiao?s next fight? ?A bunch of baloney. For starters, just think about this for a second. Granted, twenty-some years ago [Ray] Leonard and them did it. [George] Clooney and [Larry] Holmes. It takes several months to do something like that. Anytime you?re dealing with construction, there?s always going to be delays. There?s always going to be delays. And we?re talking about a temporary venue out in the middle of a dusty parking lot with bleacher seating. And he alleges that there?s a sixty-million dollar gate there in a 40,000-plus seat venue. What that means, when you do the math, it?s an average ticket price of fifteen-hundred dollars for the fans. However, some bleacher seating with temporary bathrooms.?
More issues that could arise with an outdoor stadium? ?And you have no control over the weather. His suggestion, and this is just my opinion, wanting to fight on the 26th, which is Memorial Day weekend, what if there is a delay? Putting your marbles in a temporary venue when you have no control over weather, when you have a perfect building in place that you know the event is going to take place. And, more importantly, ?Oh, we would only do a 20-million dollar gate?. That?s ridiculous, because you have to understand the numbers that you could easily do 30-million dollar gate at the MGM.?
Not budging from May 5th? ?We can?t move off May 5th even if we wanted to. That?s where?s we?re at. We?re legally locked in. The judge granted us, based off of what we had locked in, May 5th with the cable system, with the MGM, but that?s when we were fighting. We would never, ever remotely go back to the judge. The judge was more than fair to grant us the opportunity to fight and bring a major fight, whoever we?re fighting, and bring the revenue to the city. We would never go to the judge and say ?We want to move this date to a venue we don?t even know about, an event that we don?t know is even going to take place?. And Floyd would have to surrender three to four days later. Imagine if there is a delay with anything.?
