Earlier today, James Prince, the manager of undefeated super middleweight king Andre Ward, released a statement to address comments that were made about his fighter by undefeated pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather. Among other things, Prince questioned Mayweather's own ability to draw crowds in his hometown early on during his career. In response, Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe contacted FightHype.com to release his own statement. Check out what he had to say!
Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather Promotions CEO:
First of all, nobody is going to go back and forth about one's religious beliefs because there's only one that can judge us all. As far as Floyd not selling in Grand Rapids, let me set the record straight. After Floyd won the title from Genaro Hernandez 15 years ago, when he first went to Grand Rapids to defend the title against Carlos Rios, the fight was a complete sellout in 90 minutes with over 12,700 in attendance, and there were all kinds of fire marshal issues because there were so many people standing in the aisles. I know because I was there. And for the record, Floyd wasn't responsible for promoting or marketing any of his fights in those days. He was under someone else's banner. But one thing's for sure, once he gained control and became his own boss, the enourmous record-breaking pay-per-view and box office numbers speak for themselves, making him the highest paid athelete in sports today.
As far as Broner is concerned, it's simple: it's a big brother/little brother mutual admiration and nothing anybody says is going to interfere with that. I think Andre Ward is an excellent fighter and I wish him the best. He can root for Guerreo all he wants, but the outcome will be the same with Floyd whooping that ass and Floyd taking a Brinks truck home full of money that night. We won't be talking about this anymore because we gotta stay focused and take care of our business at hand, which is this huge pay-per-view event on May Day.
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