In this video interview caught by FightHub, Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe talks about this weekend's fight between Adrien Broner and Mikey Garcia, and says Garcia's flawless record has been carefully crafted.
"You gotta understand that a lot of times — I think I've mentioned this recently — matchmaking has a lot to do with how fighters look, you know what I mean? And it's like enough credit doesn't be given to matchmakers, the Bruce Tramplers, the John Beninatis...There's a number of excellent, great matchmakers out there.
"Bruce Trampler built Mikey Garcia. You know, we started out with Bruce Trampler. Great, great matchmaker. But our philosophy early on - we wanted to be put in tough, we wanted to be put in tough so you know where you at. You know a lot of guys have big records and ain't been in there. They haven't been down in them battlefields.
"We've seen guys get up off the canvas and, you know, Adrien Broner is a dog...And again...the criticism that he's faced thus far in his career, he's solely responsible for all of that, but he's also a helluva fighter too..."
On if he thinks Garcia has been matched tough:
"No, no. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. He's fought good competition but again, I'm fully, fully aware of who built his career. I know the mindset, I know how they build fighters, and they have more confidence in some fighters, and some fighters ask to be put in tough. That's how Floyd always was, he didn't want nothing easy. He wanted those tests early on so you know where you at.
"If you hadn't been down there and you hadn't been through any tough test in your boxing career, you know, what's gonna happen when you're in a dogfight — when you're in a dogfight? When he hits Adrien Broner, Adrien ain't gonna go nowhere. They making a big deal about [Garcia's] power, he's a good puncher — smaller weights, different types of fighters that he's been fighting, [but] Adrien's done been in there."
On Mikey not facing someone with Broner's style before:
"I mean, his trainer is the greatest trainer ever according to them. Good trainer, but at the end of the day I just think that stylistically Adrien just does everything better. He's bigger and I don't think enough's been said about that. You know he's not fighting a little guy...and they say the style 'oh he's a terrific boxer' but it's a little different. He's fighting a different type of fighter — somebody that's been in there...Adrien is gonna keep comin'. Adrien's not gonna be running around he's gonna keep the pressure on him. He's gonna walk him down. I know what's gonna happen."