Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions, would not be in favor of seeing his close friend, Floyd Mayweather Jr., make his debut in mixed martial arts.
As BoxingScene.com reported late Sunday night, Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs) told TMZ that he is going to apply for an MMA license.
Mayweather, 41, retired from boxing last August, after snapping a two year layoff with a tenth round stoppage of UFC superstar Connor McGregor, who was making his debut in boxing.
After months of teasing a potential debut in MMA, Mayweather has accepted an invitation to be trained by UFC champion Tyrone Woodley.
"Everything takes time. Eventually, we're gonna apply for the license, and hopefully we can fight," Mayweather told TMZ.
If Mayweather comes to Ellerbe to seek advice, his CEO would attempt to steer him in another direction.
Ellerbe realizes that Mayweather would be taking a huge risk by making his MMA debut at 41-years-old.
"I would say that I wouldn't want him to do it. I care about him. I would never want to see anything happen to him and obviously there are all sorts of risks with doing something like that. But that's just my opinion. When love someone and care about then, you don't want to see something happen to them," Ellerbe explained to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports.
"But that wouldn't be my decision, that would be solely up to him and he understands all of the risks associated with combat sports. And again, he's been very good with making great decisions. And if he has to make a decision, he will make the best decision for him."
If Mayweather actually moves forward with an MMA fight, Ellerbe believes the pay-per-view figures would be nothing short of record-breaking.
"Anything that Floyd Mayweather is involved in is record-breaking. He's mastered with understanding all of the business aspects on how to break records, he's a genius. If he decided to do something like that, there is no doubt that the numbers would be ridiculous," Ellerbe said.