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LEONARD ELLERBE: "THEIR TEAM HAS BEEN MISREPRESENTING THINGS TO THE PUBLIC"

By Ben Thompson | July 08, 2011
LEONARD ELLERBE:

"All of his comments just show you that, all along, their team has been misrepresenting things to the public. Arum's been on record with saying, 'Everything has been agreed to,' and the adviser is now saying that it hasn't, so which one is it? We all know the masterful job that Arum has done with propping his fighter up like he's some Boogie monster, the same thing that he did with Margarito, while all along attempting to paint a certain picture of Floyd. He's gone out of his way to do that, but we just stick to the facts...It just goes to show you that everything they were saying before about all the terms being agreed to is a whole bunch of crap," stated Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe, who shared his thoughts on recent comments made by Manny Pacquiao's adviser, Michael Koncz, regarding a potential clash with Floyd Mayweather. You don't want to miss what else he had to say.

BT: What's going on L? I take it you heard about my recent conversation with Micahel Koncz. Obviously I asked him about the potential fight between Floyd and Manny. According to him, they've reached out to you guys a few times regarding several different offers.

LE: Yeah, I saw his comments. Koncz gets excited about any potential deal related to Floyd and Manny fighting, no matter where the offer comes from. That's because he doesn't know any better.

BT: What I thought was interesting was the fact that he confirmed that Manny still wants a cut-off date for the random drug testing.

LE: All of his comments just show you that, all along, their team has been misrepresenting things to the public. Arum's been on record with saying, "Everything has been agreed to," and the adviser is now saying that it hasn't, so which one is it? We all know the masterful job that Arum has done with propping his fighter up like he's some Boogie monster, the same thing that he did with Margarito, while all along attempting to paint a certain picture of Floyd. He's gone out of his way to do that, but we just stick to the facts. He [Bob Arum] is on record with saying they agreed to everything, correct?

BT: Yep.

LE: So how is it that the adviser, who is supposedly the closest person to Manny and who is talking directly to Manny, comes on record and tells you that they didn't agree to everything? None of that makes any sense. It just goes to show you that everything they were saying before about all the terms being agreed to is a whole bunch of crap.

BT: I guess technically, he didn't really say that they didn't agree. He said in the past, they did agree to do the testing, just so long as it's not done 14 days before the fight. He went on to clariy that there's no way they're going to agree to give any blood on the actual day of the fight. Then he said he would have to go back and talk to Manny about his willingness to maybe move the cut-off date closer to something like 7 or 5 days before the fight.

LE: That's how you know all those previous comments about agreeing to all the terms was a bunch of bologne. Just as I said, he comes on record to confirm it. Why would Al [Haymon] or myself even be talking to Koncz in the first place when he has no authority to make a deal anyway? Everyone knows that the difference between the two camps is that Floyd makes his own decisions whereas Manny, in my opinion, is being dictated to, as evidenced by him being told who he's going to fight, when he's going to fight, and how much money he's going to be making. If I was Koncz, I wouldn't pat myself on the back and brag about any negotiating skills. According to him, his fighter is the biggest attraction in the sport. If that's the case, then why is it that both of them fought Shane Mosley a year apart, but Manny only made a fraction of what Floyd made? Once again, that's a fact.

BT: That's a valid point.

LE: Truth be told, his fighter has consistently done less [pay-per-view] buys, and his live gate grosses are significantly less than Floyd's. These are irrefutable facts and I'd be willing to challenge anyone on that. Isn't it ironic how their promoter comes out with an official statement saying they did between 1.3 and 1.4 buys for their last fight, and yet Showtime has never come out with a statement on what the official number actually is? I wonder why? In my opinion, this is just another example of how information is misrepresented to the public. I'm sure if Showtime was comfortable with what the promoter was saying, they would have come out with an official number just as HBO has done in the past.

BT: I don't know if you caught this in the interview, but Koncz also mentioned that they wanted to fight Shane Mosley because it was an opportuny to look better than Floyd. Obviously Pacquiao has some history with Marquez, but do you think maybe they're also targeting him becaue they want to make a statement by doing better than Floyd's performance against Marquez?

LE: All he's done recently is fight guys coming off of losses or bad performances. What they have is great matchmaking by Bruce Trampler and good marketing by their promotional firm. He's a good little fighter, I will say that, but he's gotten too much credit for his recent accomplishments, fighting the same opponents that Floyd has fought. When Floyd fought these same guys, according to many members of the media, they were old, over the hill, or too small. Beating the same guys that Floyd has already beaten, in my opinion, does nothing for his legacy. All roads lead to Floyd Mayweather, as evidenced by Floyd being the biggest attraction in the sport and generating the most revenue. If he [Pacquiao] is willing to fight Mayweather, he will be no different than any other fighter who steps in the ring with Floyd and is subjected to random blood and urine tests. It gets no clearer than that.

BT: Well, a lot of fans are hoping that eventually everything can be worked out, but for now, you guys have another hurdle to get over on September 17th. I'm sure Victor Ortiz is hoping to put an end to all the buzz about Mayweather vs. Pacquiao.

LE: Floyd's focus is solely on Victor Ortiz because he's a young, hungry, strong champion who's 10 years younger and coming off of a tremendous victory as opposed to Pacquiao's recent opponents who are coming off of losses or poor performances. For Koncz to even suggest that Ortiz is a tune-up just goes to show you that he doesn't know anything about boxing. That's one of the dumbest comments a person can make. As far as his statement on him not liking Floyd as a human being, who really cares? He's irrelevant anyway. For the record, I don't like him!



[ Follow Ben Thompson on Twitter @fighthype ]

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