Leonard Ellerbe says there were no Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiations
by Scott Christ on Jul 19, 2010 8:42 PM EDT
in Boxing News Analysis
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And here we go with the mess.
Adviser Leonard Ellerbe says that there were no negotiations between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, according to ESPN.com, despite Top Rank claiming that Mayweather had until midnight this past Friday to decide whether or not to accept an offer from Top Rank and Pacquiao.
"Here are the facts. Al Haymon, Richard Schaefer and myself speak to each other on a regular basis, and the truth is no negotiations have ever taken place, nor was there ever a deal agreed upon by Team Mayweather or Floyd Mayweather to fight Manny Pacquiao on Nov. 13. Either Ross Greenburg or Bob Arum is not telling the truth, but history tells us who is lying."
Bob Arum repeatedly called this new development "absurd":
"This is like absurd unreality. I'm not going to be party to this [expletive]. ... Why they're doing this is absurd. What is motivating them to put something like this out? I'm not going to speculate but what are they doing? Schaefer said there was a gag order. Who could there be a gag order from if there were no negotiations? From the sky? What they said was absurd, but why did they say this?"
Without going into great detail, because enough ink, zeroes and ones, breath and thought has been wasted on this non-event, I'll just say that clearly, someone here has gone plum bonkers. I don't know who it is, but someone here is not playing with a full deck.
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I cant believe Im about to say this, but I think Arum may actually be telling the truth here.
Why would Arum make up a big lie like that so it can backfire on him?
He may have exaggerated the facts a little bit to make Pacqauio come out looking clean to the public, but I dont belive that he’s lying about having any type of negotioations with someone about a May-Pac fight, maybe not Mayweather Jr. himself or Ellerbe, but Im sure he talked to someone.
Move along folks.
Keep Firing, Assholes!
Truculence, Belligerence, & Pugnacity
by Ubernoober on Jul 19, 2010 9:19 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
An appropriate song for this mess
with an appropriate title:
“Gagging Order” by the one and only Radiohead.
“move along/there’s nothing left to see”
by The Boxer Rebellion on Jul 19, 2010 9:50 PM EDT reply actions
Floyd has always spoken for himself.
He takes great pride in being his own boss and is never at a loss for words. And….he has spoken. He is not interested in boxing at this time.
Well, he is about to learn that no man is above the game …..and that time waits for no one. Boxing was fine without him fighting….and it will be just as well with him not.
I have always believed, his talents aside, that this is a man who does not see the bigger picture both inside and outside of boxing. Sure, he’s very wealthy. For now. But his opportunity to make himself the next Brand name in boxing is certainly that much further from becoming a reality. He has, in his narcissism, botched numerous opportunities in the past. This time may be fatal to any aspirations of taking the mantle from predecessors such as Oscar and SRL.
America loves it’s heavyweights. Yet it has embraced many smaller men. It will soon forget a man who refused to be bigger where it mattered. In the ring.
by pakinpower on Jul 19, 2010 10:05 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
Very well-written and eloquent, but...
I’m not sure I agree with you. I wish this were the case, but unless somebody else beats Pacquiao in the next year or two, Mayweather could take as much time as he wants, then make a comeback 12-15 months down the road. The fight would be as big, or maybe even bigger, than it would be in November.
I know we’d all like to think boxing will be just as well without Floyd, and without this superfight, but we need star power. There’s fewer and fewer mainstream stars in boxing, and unless the stars keep high profile and keep bringing casual fans to the table, boxing is going to become even more of a fringe sport than it already is. How often can you go on ESPN.com and see a boxing story without going to the boxing page (luckily we have BadLeftHook so we don’t have to bother!). We need Floyd, and it’s a damn shame that he doesn’t seem to have any respect or regard for the good of the sport.
Manny's star rose when Floyd was 'retired'
The vacuum was and will be filled again. Certainly, I agree boxing needs these kinds of big fights. It also needs stars that earn glory in the ring. Men who have to and like to fight.
What it doesn’t need part time fighters…. no matter who they are. Floyd is abdicating his role as the "American’ hero. So make another one. Focus the money not being held aside for Floyd on building better cards. On young emerging stars. On Timothy Bradley.
I recognize the ‘loss’ to boxing with Floyd not boxing …. but it is time to move on.
It doesn't matter what happened
They’re not fighting right now, the end.
I just hope that if both fighters take on other competition that neither loses, because that would definetly kill the buzz from this fight if it ever happens.
If these guys do fight other opponents, the only fighters that should be brought up are: Sergio Martinez, Paul Williams, Tim Bradley and Andre Berto. Anything else is waste of time.
Cotto and Margarito are out, for different reasons.
Cotto had his chance already.
And Margarito blew his chance.
If these two go on to fight other competetion, the only way I can respect it is if they take one of the four guys mentioned above.
I just hope that if both fighters take on other competition that neither loses, because that would definetly kill the buzz from this fight if it ever happens.
They’ve already killed the buzz significantly.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jul 19, 2010 11:04 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
I don’t think so. Maybe amongst us who follow the sport closely and are deathly sick of it, but the buzz of the fight can’t die until one of them isn’t considered as great as they were before. As soon as the fight were to begin to approach, the attention would go off the charts. The fight can’t lose value until one of their star power begins to. I wish it could because they deserve to be punished for this, but it won’t.
Believe me, the buzz for that fight has dropped a LOT since last November when Pacquiao beat Cotto and everyone on earth went, “We gotta see Pacquiao-Mayweather!” There are a lot of casual fans that have lost interest and think boxing is bullshit because these two can’t make a fight. It’d be like the Heat and Lakers making the finals next season but refusing to play each other.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jul 20, 2010 12:14 PM EDT up reply actions
Another year of age isn’t going to help Garnett, Allen and Pierce. The Heat are like the Celtics but younger and better at all of those positions.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jul 23, 2010 3:28 PM EDT up reply actions
The buzz has lost it's 'B" and it's 'U'
All that is left are the ZZZZZZ’s
by pakinpower on Jul 19, 2010 11:46 PM EDT reply actions 2 recs
Ok Leonard
even if you’re not a total lying scumbag like the rest of these clowns, then WHY? – Why the hell were there no negotiations?
"Yes Gina, I am a Wise Cracker"
Exactly
Not that I find Ellerbe credible after Oscar all but said a “deal was very close” to being made, but even if it were true (and Arum is delusional) the question should be: “Why haven’t and aren’t you negotiating, Leonard?
The collective Mayweather Mouth that spoke exhaustively even after Manny filed suit for defamation is suddenly silent. Their boss (at least Floyd always said he was) who has never been at a loss for words is suddenly delegating; virtually consigning Ellerbe to ridicule.
exactly
Assuming this is all BS of some variety, isn’t a statement along the lines of “we just couldn’t reach a deal,” or something similar far better than “we never even tried to negotiate”? Certainly, my initial reaction to these two not fighting was to blame both equally, but it is getting pretty difficult to ignore that Floyd seems to be more responsible for this breaking down. Of course, I blame Arum and Manny for refusing to fight anyone other than Top Rank fighters, but that’s a different story.
by The Boxer Rebellion on Jul 20, 2010 9:40 AM EDT up reply actions
Maybe mayweather wanted some time off?
Just throwing it out there, not picking any sides
"I guess I can’t do anything if you’re just irrational, but to point it out and move on."
- fundamentallysound
by J Theory on Jul 20, 2010 10:58 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Time of from what though?
He’s just had a nice relaxing retirement.
"All the time he's boxing, he's thinking. All the time he was thinking, I was hitting him." - Jack Dempsey
by Drunken cutman on Jul 20, 2010 12:49 PM EDT up reply actions
Don't know and it's stupid for him to want time off
We’ll have to wait to see what’s really going on
"I guess I can’t do anything if you’re just irrational, but to point it out and move on."
- fundamentallysound
He's had 2 months off
And there’s $40 million on the table. If he wants to take more time off, then he’s just plain lazy and I’m not going to respect him any more for that. I’d kill for 60 days off in a row.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
And 40 mill at the end
Yeah, I could handle that.
"All the time he's boxing, he's thinking. All the time he was thinking, I was hitting him." - Jack Dempsey
by Drunken cutman on Jul 20, 2010 7:41 PM EDT up reply actions
My suspicion is that if you were to pin Ellerbe down on this, what he would say is that it is technically true that Team Mayweather never negotiated with anyone because only Golden Boy negotiated with Arum and Team Mayweather does not consider Golden Boy to be their agents – instead, they were just third parties who were trying to broker a deal. They never had any direct contact with Arum so they didn’t “really” have any negotiations with him.
Even if you think that would be a technically true explanation, it would be highly misleading. But that’s my guess as to what’s going on here.
You're probably right
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
Great take on it, but even if you're right then the whole thing stinks to high hell.
Now, Tweek, boxing is a Man sport. There is nothing in the world more Man than boxing. It is Man at his most Man. So when you spar with Ned here, just dig deep into that most Man part of you. (Uncle Jimbo, South Park: Tweek vs Craig)
Not to mention
that is just plain STUPID. Why send the message that you weren’t even trying to make the fight?
by The Boxer Rebellion on Jul 20, 2010 4:32 PM EDT up reply actions
I would guess that they just want to send the message that Floyd Mayweather is his own man and will do whatever he wants to do, not what other people want him to do. And that they think this message will be the one that gets across to the public, not the message that Floyd Mayweather is afraid to make the fight, or is giving the finger to the fans. Not saying I agree with it.
I don't know what to think
At first I was thinking, Damn Leonard, I know you’ve heard on the news about the negotiations going on, why didn’t you speak up then??? And then I started thinking, didn’t this shit just happen to Maidana too? So maybe it’s not too far-fetched that no negotiations actually took place. But then you have Oscar saying they had a done deal. And now I’m thinking about eating some Funyuns. So yeah, I’m going to go eat some Funyuns.
by erod on Jul 20, 2010 9:16 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
I just can't trust Arum he has been linked to so many scandals in the past
Mayweather talks a lot of shit but is he known as a liar?
"I guess I can’t do anything if you’re just irrational, but to point it out and move on."
- fundamentallysound
by J Theory on Jul 20, 2010 11:00 AM EDT via mobile reply actions
Mayweather talks a lot of shit but is he known as a liar?
Depends on how loosely you want to define “liar.” He’s definitely stretched the truth plenty in the past.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jul 20, 2010 12:15 PM EDT up reply actions
I guess you're right it's how you define it.
Just asking the question to see if he’s been labeled as one.
"I guess I can’t do anything if you’re just irrational, but to point it out and move on."
- fundamentallysound
A lot more than just Arum would need to be lying for him to be in a total lie
And I don’t think even Bob Arum has the chutzpah to try making THAT bold faced of a lie. That’s the type of thing he could get disbarred over.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
To be honest I don't favor Mayweather or Pacman over each other but I can't stand Arum
If you look at his past there are a couple of times where Arum could have been disbarred. The deadline didn’t make sense to me, promotion and so forth have been done on shorter notices, keeping Pacmans next opponents in house, possible fight in Dubai to gain more money, and the phone conference was all kind of funny.
And it’s not time to pick sides either because this whole situation stinks. Mayweather’s camp should be pushing for this fight and talks should have been happening. They should be happening now
"I guess I can’t do anything if you’re just irrational, but to point it out and move on."
- fundamentallysound
Mayweather’s camp should be pushing for this fight and talks should have been happening. They should be happening now
Yep.
Now, Tweek, boxing is a Man sport. There is nothing in the world more Man than boxing. It is Man at his most Man. So when you spar with Ned here, just dig deep into that most Man part of you. (Uncle Jimbo, South Park: Tweek vs Craig)
Yawn
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me. " Hunter S Thompson.
Ive lost interest in this “fight” and I use the term “fight” very loosly. When their next fight gets signed I’ll start paying attention to either of them but at this point I dont care about who said what and who didn’t say something else. Im a boxing fan for the boxing not the talking
"I'm scared every time I go into the ring, but it's how you handle it. What you have to do is plant your feet, bite down on your mouthpiece and say, 'Let's go.'" Mike Tyson
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