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LEONARD ELLERBE CLARIFIES THEY MIGHT WORK WITH GOLDEN BOY IN FUTURE, BUT NOT FOR FLOYD MAYWEATHER'S NEXT FIGHT

By Ben Thompson | June 03, 2014
LEONARD ELLERBE CLARIFIES THEY MIGHT WORK WITH GOLDEN BOY IN FUTURE, BUT NOT FOR FLOYD MAYWEATHER'S NEXT FIGHT

"Floyd is looking to fight the biggest fights out there in boxing. As it relates to Floyd Mayweather, if there was an opportunity and Golden Boy approached Mayweather Promotions about Canelo Alvarez wanting to fight Floyd Mayweather again, of course we're going to sit down and have a discussion to see if the fight can be made. Other than that, I don't know what fighters they have and what fighters they don't have...I wish them nothing but the best and I have nothing personal against Oscar. If there's a situation and an opportunity where he has a fighter such as Canelo, would we do business? Yes, we would," stated Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe, who clarified that there is a possibility that they could still do business with Golden Boy Promotions in the future, but just not when it comes to Floyd Mayweather's next fight on September 13. Check out what else he had to say!

BT: Leonard, obviously the big news is that Richard Schaefer has left Golden Boy Promotions. In the past, Floyd has made it clear that he feels it was Richard who built the company and that's who he prefers to work with.

LE: [Cutting in] At the end of the day, the person we worked with resigned. I've never worked with Oscar [De La Hoya].

BT: So Oscar was never involved in any of your business meetings with Golden Boy Promotions?

LE: Not one. That's no knock on him. I'm not saying that he's not capable, qualified, or any of the above, but my relationship hasn't been with him. I don't have nothing bad to say about him or their company. It's just the people that I and my team have personally worked with from an execution standpoint has been Richard [Schaefer] and Bruce [Binkow]. But everyone on their team are great people who are all an asset to their company.

BT: Well speaking of companies, as it relates to Mayweather Promotions and your fighters, are you saying that you have no desire to work with Golden Boy Promotions or any of their fighters now that Richard Schaefer is gone?

LE: I don't even know which fighters they have. Listen, I have nothing personal against Oscar. All I stated was that I've never had any working relationship with him. Floyd Mayweather is the biggest star in the sport. With what we're looking to do as quickly as September 13th, are we supposed to sit around and wait to see how their situation shakes out over there? We're moving forward and doing the things we've been doing. We've done a number of shows on our own and we have the right pieces in place to continue to execute and do what we need to do. There's so many integral pieces to a promotion and it takes more than one person with the know-how to get it done and executed. From the marketing side to the promoting side to the operations side, there are so many different things and it's a group effort; not a singular effort, but a group effort. Showtime has a tremendous staff and a tremendous team. We haven't been working 16 to 18 hours a day trying to grow our own brand sitting around waiting on somebody else. That's an insult. We've done a number of shows ourselves without them. Just because we don't raise our hand and say, "Ooh, look what we're doing and look what we've been doing," people just automatically assume that Golden Boy had done this and Golden Boy has done that, and that's absolutely not the case. We've worked hand-in-hand over a number of years and we've had a great working relationship, and I'll continue to say that. We've had a great working relationship with Richard and Bruce and their team, but nobody's been sitting around over here for the last 7 years doing nothing. We've been growing our own brand and doing our own shows with my own staff and my own team. We've put the necessary pieces in place to execute. Again, I have nothing against Oscar, but as it relates to today, I can't sit around here and say we're doing business with somebody on September the 13th when I don't even know what their leadership situation looks like. And furthermore, as it relates to Floyd Mayweather on September the 13th, there's nobody that we're looking at that I need to talk to them about. We're not going to sit around here. We're doing our own thing, we have our own fighters, and we're looking to continue growing our own brand.

BT: So you're not necessarily saying the door is closed when it comes to working with Golden Boy Promotions. It's just as far as September 13th and Floyd's next fight are concerned, Golden Boy Promotions will not be involved.

LE: Floyd is looking to fight the biggest fights out there in boxing. As it relates to Floyd Mayweather, if there was an opportunity and Golden Boy approached Mayweather Promotions about Canelo Alvarez wanting to fight Floyd Mayweather again, of course we're going to sit down and have a discussion to see if the fight can be made. Other than that, I don't know what fighters they have and what fighters they don't have. That's not my business and I'm not concerned with that, but if we're looking to make a fight with a guy like Danny Garcia or Amir Khan or Marcos Maidana, their company is in a flux right now and I would be picking up the phone to call the same person I already talk to 8 or 9 times a day anyway [Al Haymon]. We've already got the ball rolling on a number of different things as it relates to getting out in front of our promotion; a number of different strategies on marketing and promoting for September. This train doesn't stop. It's just by happenstance, in the past, the fighters that we've fought have just been under their particular banner and we've had a tremendous working relationship with them. But I don't know what their situation is, it's none of my business, and I don't care. I have to be concerned about my own promotional company, my own team, my own staff and what we got going moving forward. I wish them nothing but the best and I have nothing personal against Oscar. If there's a situation and an opportunity where he has a fighter such as Canelo, would we do business? Yes, we would.



[ Follow Ben Thompson on Twitter @fighthype ]

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