Tweet
By Thomas Gerbasi - No one likes to get booed, especially in their hometown, but when Leonard Ellerbe took to the microphone for the Washington D.C. stop of the press tour for the Floyd Mayweather-Saul Alvarez bout on June 25th and got an earful from the Canelo faithful, it was music to his ears.
“Going to D.C. after growing up in the area, for me to step up to the podium in my hometown and get booed, that blew me away,” laughed Ellerbe on Wednesday in New York City, where he and the other power hitters of the promotion – Golden Boy’s Richard Schaefer and Bruce Binkow and Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza – discussed the business of putting together the biggest boxing event of 2013. And Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions, which is co-promoting the card, got an inkling back in June just how big this fight could be.
“At that point, I knew we had something special.”
These days, much of the talk about Mayweather-Alvarez centers on the possibility of it shattering the Pay-Per-View buy rate (2.5 million) and gross ($132 million) of Mayweather’s 2007 bout against Oscar De La Hoya. It was in that bout that Mayweather proved himself to be a Pay-Per-View draw, something that has been reinforced in each of his bouts since.
Yet while “Pretty Boy” morphed into “Money” and saw his tax bracket and profile change, one of the constants has been Ellerbe, the pound-for-pound king’s longtime advisor and now the one running his promotional company. And while the relationship remains the same, Ellerbe’s life has also been altered considerably.
“It’s changed quite a bit,” he said. “I went from working 18 hours a day and now I’m working 26 hours (Laughs), but it’s a wonderful thing, being hands on, right along with Floyd, and developing these young guys. For me, having the experience to play an integral role in his events from every aspect, from the promotional side to the training side, I’ve been able to pass on a lot of this information to the younger guys, and it’s been very beneficial because as you will see as our company continues to grow, the fighters will continue to evolve.”
Unlike most fighters’ “promotional” companies, which usually result in a namecheck in a press release and little more, indications are that this isn’t just a vanity label for Mayweather, but an entity building a solid roster of fighters that have been consistently finding their way onto Golden Boy cards and televised broadcasts. According to Boxrec.com, next week alone will see nine of the team’s 10 fighters in action, and that’s not even counting the September 14th headliner, Mayweather. [Click Here To Read More]
“Going to D.C. after growing up in the area, for me to step up to the podium in my hometown and get booed, that blew me away,” laughed Ellerbe on Wednesday in New York City, where he and the other power hitters of the promotion – Golden Boy’s Richard Schaefer and Bruce Binkow and Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza – discussed the business of putting together the biggest boxing event of 2013. And Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions, which is co-promoting the card, got an inkling back in June just how big this fight could be.
“At that point, I knew we had something special.”
These days, much of the talk about Mayweather-Alvarez centers on the possibility of it shattering the Pay-Per-View buy rate (2.5 million) and gross ($132 million) of Mayweather’s 2007 bout against Oscar De La Hoya. It was in that bout that Mayweather proved himself to be a Pay-Per-View draw, something that has been reinforced in each of his bouts since.
Yet while “Pretty Boy” morphed into “Money” and saw his tax bracket and profile change, one of the constants has been Ellerbe, the pound-for-pound king’s longtime advisor and now the one running his promotional company. And while the relationship remains the same, Ellerbe’s life has also been altered considerably.
“It’s changed quite a bit,” he said. “I went from working 18 hours a day and now I’m working 26 hours (Laughs), but it’s a wonderful thing, being hands on, right along with Floyd, and developing these young guys. For me, having the experience to play an integral role in his events from every aspect, from the promotional side to the training side, I’ve been able to pass on a lot of this information to the younger guys, and it’s been very beneficial because as you will see as our company continues to grow, the fighters will continue to evolve.”
Unlike most fighters’ “promotional” companies, which usually result in a namecheck in a press release and little more, indications are that this isn’t just a vanity label for Mayweather, but an entity building a solid roster of fighters that have been consistently finding their way onto Golden Boy cards and televised broadcasts. According to Boxrec.com, next week alone will see nine of the team’s 10 fighters in action, and that’s not even counting the September 14th headliner, Mayweather. [Click Here To Read More]
Comment