By Chris Robinson
On Tuesday afternoon, pound for pound great Floyd Mayweather Jr. hosted the media in Las Vegas ahead of his May 5th fight with junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto.
Mayweather will be vying for the WBA crown that his Puerto Rican foe owns when they meet inside of the MGM Grand in a pay-per-view show that has shaped up to be the biggest event in 2012 thus far.
Prior to Mayweather’s arrival, I caught up with Leonard Ellerbe, Floyd’s longtime friend and advisor, as well as the CEO of Mayweather Promotions. Asked how this particular training camp has compared to those in the past, Ellerbe seems taken aback by what he has been seeing from Floyd.
“This is probably our best camp. He gets better and better,” Ellerbe would state of Mayweather. “Obviously, Floyd is just unbelievable and with him being the most talented guy out there and working harder than everybody, he really hasn’t had to come out with his bag of tricks but he’s working like he’s nineteen years old. His work ethic is unbelievable and I fully expect that all the work that he puts into this, the fans will really get a kick out of this next Saturday.”
I’ve been fortunate to witness some of Mayweather’s training days in preparation for Cotto and one thing that struck me instantly was all of the young, fresh talent in the gym, from Floyd’s sparring partners to the local brethren training around him. It has created a special kind of ambience inside of the building and Ellerbe explained why so many hopefuls make their way to train at the club.
“Everybody, when they come to Vegas, wants to train here at the Mayweather Boxing Club,” Ellerbe claimed. “Every top fighter is always calling the phone. They come here, they train, all the young guys come here because they just want to be part of this environment and absorb as much information that they can. Because all this is history. Floyd Mayweather will go down, in my eyes, as the greatest to ever do it.”
Ellerbe has a hands-on approach with Mayweather’s training but the majority of his work seems to be done outside of the gym. Asked what the whole process of promoting and preparing for such a huge event is like, Ellerbe admits that it can take its toll.
“Well it’s always draining for me but it’s just the nature of the beast,” said Ellerbe. “I take a lot of pride in my job and I work sixteen, eighteen hours, seven days a week when we don’t have a fight. Because I’m responsible for taking care of all of his business, not just his boxing business. With managing his whole portfolio, to legal, to accounting, to philanthropy, personal appearances, all of it falls under my umbrella. So it’s a lot of work but I take a lot of pride in being a professional and doing my job.”
Ellerbe was asked if it would be bittersweet for him to see Mayweather walk away from the sport but his response surprised me slightly.
“I’ll be happy. I’ll be happy because, like I said, he’ll be able to have accomplished everything that he wanted to accomplish and broke all the records that he wanted to break. And he’ll definitely go down as the greatest to ever do it. People won’t appreciate it until his career is completely over. Because nobody will be coming out, making forty, fifty-million dollar purses. How he’s changed the game, that will never happen again,” Ellerbe said.
Chris Robinson is based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. He can be reached at Trimond@aol.com
