CrSeven years after Floyd Mayweather’s win over Canelo Alvarez in 2013, Leonard Ellerbe is still happy about his victory over the Golden Boy star. The Mayweather Promotions CEO Ellerbe reminds fans that Floyd schooled him in that fight.
It was a case of the 22-year-old Canelo being too young at that point in his career to take on a talented fighter like Mayweather, who was 36 at the time but still in his prime.
Ellerbe says he gave Canelo a pep talk after the fight, letting him know that he should hold his head up. He notes that Canelo has made considerable improvements in his game since his loss to Mayweather, but he still rates him behind Terence Crawford in the pound-for-pound rankings.
Mayweather took Canelo to school
“I don’t know why he said that,” said Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe to Fighthype about Canelo Alvarez speaking that his fight against Mayweather was his apprenticeship, but it was also a boring fight.
“Again, it was a dynamic performance by Floyd. Canelo had his entire country supporting him and behind him, and Floyd tapped that a**. There’s no doubt,” Ellerbe said when asked if he could see that Canelo was going to be great,” said Ellerbe.
A lot of boxing fans think Mayweather intentionally picked Canelo out at 22 because he knew he had to fight him at that point when he was still green. If Mayweather waited much longer, he would have had to deal with a far better fighter with more power and talent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hws-4eDDchw&t=4s
Also, fans think Mayweather took advantage of Canelo by fighting him at a catchweight at 152 lbs rather than at 154. Canelo was already huge for a junior middleweight even back then and probably should have been competing at 160.
Whatever chance that Canelo had in beating Mayweather went down the drain when he agreed to fight him at a catchweight.
“He’s gone on and had a phenomenal career,” said Ellerbe of Canelo. “That loss made him a better fighter. Again, I was just telling a story in there. I could recall that Wednesday [after the fight].
“I got in the elevator. I told him to pick his head up. ‘You don’t have any reason to hold your head down. You just lost to the best fighter in the world.
‘I know that your entire country was behind you, but you have no reason to hold your head down by losing to the best. You’ll learn from this,’ and indeed he has. He’s gone on to have a phenomenal career,” said Ellerbe in doing a big of gloating.
It appears that Canelo did learn a great deal from his loss to Mayweather in more ways that one. Not only did Canelo adopt Mayweather’s fighting style, but he also used some of the same tactics with weight and selecting opponents.
Some fans think Mayweather was an expert at cherry-picking his opposition at the right time in their careers when they were on the downside or too young. Canelo has arguably done the same thing in picking these fighters after they were in their mid-30s and no longer what they once were:
- Gennady Golovkin
- Sergey Kovalev
- Miguel Cotto
- Shane Mosley
Ellerbe rates Crawford as #1 pound-for-pound
“I think Bud [Crawford] is,” said Ellerbe when asked if he places Canelo at #1 in the pound-for-pound rankings. “That’s my opinion. Canelo is probably #2. I don’t believe in mythical match-ups, so I don’t want to address all of that because you already know the answer to that,” said Ellerbe in letting boxing fans know that he thinks Mayweather would have beaten Crawford in his prime.
The pound-for-pound rankings have no real meaning other than just people making opinions. We don’t know if Canelo is better than Crawford. Unless they fight at the same weight, it’s impossible to compare them.
“This is Bud’s time now. He’s trying to get a big fight now,” said Ellerbe. “Floyd fought 26 world champions. I don’t want to get into any of that. It’s not any of my business,” said Ellerbe when asked if it’s unfortunate that the 32-year-old Crawford still hasn’t been involved in a big fight during his 12-year pro career.
“Hey, he’s with the company he signed with [Top Rank]. I give him nothing but respect to him and the company he signed with. They got to figure out what they’re doing, and that’s their business.
“I’m sure they’ll figure out what they’re doing with his career. I have to worry about my fighters and the guys that I work with, and that’s what I’m focused on,” said Ellerbe.
Unfortunately, Crawford signed with the wrong promoter for him to get the big fights during his career, but this is what he wanted. Crawford knew what he was getting himself into when he re-signed with Top Rank recently, and yet he still did it.