Mayweather wasn’t knocked out by Judah, says Ellberbe

By Boxing News - 03/25/2015 - Comments

LR_TRAPPFOTOS-MAYPAC PRESSER-8638(Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp/Mayweather Promotions) By Chris Williams: Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe says that there is absolutely no truth to the ridiculous rumors that have been circulating around lately about Zab Judah having knocked out Floyd Mayweather Jr with a body shot during a recent sparring session.

This so called incident has spread like wildfire after starting up somewhere on the internet. First Judah himself denied that it ever happened, and no Ellberbe is saying it’s not true.

“False…nothing like that. It never happened,” Ellerbe told Skysports.com when asked whether Judah had knocked Mayweather down during one of their sparring sessions. Zab is in camp. He’s helping with the preparations along with several other sparring partners.

When asked about the claims in an exclusive interview, Ellerbe told Sky Sports News HQ: “False. No. Zab is in camp. Zab is a tremendous fighter – he’s been helping with the preparations along with several other sparring partners. They are really pushing Floyd. Floyd is treating this fight and the preparation as business as usual.”

That’s the end of that. I guess we can close the door on that rumor. It’s strange how these rumors pop up every now and then, but it’s good that there’s eyewitnesses who can shut down the rumors by telling shedding some light on the situation. There’s nothing worse than a nasty rumor.

A little over a week ago, Jeff Mayweather reported that Mayweather was really working Judah over during their sparring sessions. He said that Judah was getting dominated so badly that he’d stopped throwing punches back at Mayweather. Jeff later apologized for leaking the information about the sparring, because he felt that it wasn’t the right thing for him to have done.

Ellerbe says that Mayweather is treating this fight like he has with all the other fights during his career. Pacquiao is no different than the other 47 opponents that Mayweather has faced and beaten. He’s just another name that he plans on adding to his win column as he heads towards his 50th win.

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Beating Pacquiao will give Mayweather a 48-0 record, and that’ll bring him to within two fights to the magical 50 victories. It would be great if Mayweather could have a special opponent for when that happens, someone like Gennady Golovkin.

Beating the best middleweight in the 160 pound division would be a nice feather in Mayweather’s cap, and it would give him a huge boost to his legacy. It would also give Mayweather bragging rights that he’s the best fighter in this era.

Pacquiao has captured eight division world titles, but he didn’t do it every time by facing the absolute best fighters in each division. For example, Pacquiao fought Antonio Margarito at a catch-weight of 150 pounds to win the WBC junior middleweight title in 2010. Pacquiao beat David Diaz to win the WBC lightweight title in 2007. Pacquiao defeated Miguel Cotto at a catch-weight of 143lbs to win the WBO welterweight title in 2009. It’s hard to make an argument that Pacquiao fought the best fighters in those divisions to win those world titles. If Mayweather can beat Golovkin for his 50th win, it would be a tremendous way for him to pick up that victory while at the same time capturing his 6th division world title the hard way.

“Floyd’s preparations will not change,” Ellerbe said. “His approach will be – Manny Pacquiao is just another opponent and he’ll go in there and show all the fans across the globe why he’s been the best fighter for his whole generation.”

This fight could very well be no different for Mayweather than a lot of his fights during his career. It’s getting a lot of hype from boxing fans, as they think it’s going to be a competitive bout. But Mayweather may turn Pacquiao into another Ricky Hatton or Arturo Gatti if Pacquiao comes out fighting in a reckless manner like he’s done in many of his fights.

Mayweather likes to fight sloppy fighters in order to take advantage of their wild fighting styles. If Pacquiao isn’t disciplined on May 2nd, Mayweather could end up clowning him in front of millions of people.



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