Ellerbe expects Berto to fight like a warrior and not complain about shoulder problems

By Boxing News - 08/17/2015 - Comments

_DSC0210(Photo credit: Idris Elba) By Chris Williams: Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe took a shot at Manny Pacquiao this past week by saying that he doesn’t expect Floyd Mayweather Jr’s opponent Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KOs) to start complaining about a shoulder problem during or after their fight on September 12th on Showtime PPV from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Ellerbe says Berto has fought with a shoulder injury before in the past in his bout with Jesus Soto Karass, and he fought with the pain and didn’t complain about the injury afterwards when he was knocked out in the 12th round by Soto-Karass.

Ellerbe thinks Berto with make it an exciting affair and attack regardless of what happens. Berto badly tore up his right shoulder in the 2nd round of his fight against Soto Karass, and he never stopped attacking him.

“We know, in fights like that, that Berto isn’t going to sit back, and we know he isn’t going to be complaining about his shoulder. We’ve done seen him fight with one arm,” Ellerbe said via mlive.com.

Pacquiao had injured his right shoulder during and before his fight against Mayweather on May 2nd. After the fight, Pacquiao said his shoulder was 60 percent of normal. While some people thought it was noble for Pacquiao to fight with an injury of this type for the entire 12 rounds, it looked strange to other boxing fans that Pacquiao brought up the injury after the loss and not before the fight. Making excuses after loses is something that many fans see as a weakness.

Ellerbe figures that Berto will keep attacking no matter what happens on September 12th. If you look at how Pacquiao fought, he didn’t fight aggressively like he normally does. To be sure, Pacquiao fought with aggression at times, but in many of the rounds, Pacquiao stayed on the outside and looked defeated and afraid to attack. This was evident in the first two rounds when Mayweather kept nailing Pacquiao with right hand counters. He was also catching Pacquiao as he was coming forward in his aggressive manner.

Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach had said that Pacquiao was going to attack Mayweather nonstop and put a tremendous amount of pressure on him. The approach had worked against most of his opposition during his career with the exception of Juan Manuel Marquez.

It didn’t against Mayweather, who nailed the Filipino star repeatedly as he came forward with his primitive attacks. Instead of Roach coming up with a plan-B for Pacquiao to use, he continued to urge for him to attack. There was no plan-B for Pacquiao. After all that talking Roach had done during training camp about him having multiple plans for Pacquiao to use against Mayweather, we quickly found out that Roach had only one plan and when that plan failed the cupboards were bare. It really wasn’t a plan though.

Pacquiao fought like he always had from day one when he turned pro by him bum rushing his opponents. The only difference is Pacquiao became paralyzed early on when he got nailed by Mayweather repeatedly when he rushed him with his crude attacks. Once Pacquiao’s normal style of fighting was nullified by Mayweather, Pacquiao and Roach had no answers. The fight was pretty much over after the 2nd round.

Pacquiao thinks he won the fight with Mayweather, but of course the judges disagreed with him. They felt that Mayweather had done enough to get the win.

“He’s never, ever been in a dull fight,” Ellerbe said of Berto. “He’s been in two fight-of-the-year candidates, with the Ortiz fight and the Guerrero fight. We know he’s been knocked down but he gets back up and fights his heart out.”

It’s very true what Ellerbe says about Berto never being in a dull fight. He always makes it an exciting, and isn’t afraid to get up and continue fighting hard when he gets knocked down in a fight. He’ll fight his heart out and he’ll never stop attacking even if he hurts a shoulder. There will not be any holding back from Berto if he gets hit with right hand shots while he’s coming forward, and he definitely won’t stop attacking if he rips up one of his shoulders.

Berto is a fierce warrior and will make it an exciting fight from start to finish.
Ellerbe reaffirmed that Mayweather will be retiring after the Berto fight. Ellerbe said that there is “no point” in Mayweather continuing to fight after the Berto fight. Mayweather has made his money and will be retiring the way he wanted to by fighting Berto.

“Here’s a guy who’s made well over a half-billion dollars, doing it his way, and he can ride off into the sunset after this,” Ellerbe said. “That’s the way he thinks. Berto, in his mind, he’s thinking something different.”

I agree it’s a great way for Mayweather to retire. He doesn’t need to fight Pacquiao a second time because there’s no point. Mayweather already exposed Pacquiao last May, and you could tell from watching that fight that Mayweather would always whip Pacquiao no matter how many times they fight each other.

I don’t believe Pacquiao’s injury had anything to do with his loss. He could have fought Mayweather with two perfectly healthy shoulders and still wound up losing as badly as he did. Mayweather was just too talented for the Filipino star to deal with. As for the young whippersnappers that are interested in fighting Mayweather in the 147, 154 and 160lb divisions, they’re just going to have to find their own path and create their own legacy without a boost up from Mayweather.

To be sure, it would have helped these fighters if they could have been given a fight against Mayweather, but you can’t expect Mayweather to stick around for the next two to three years so that he can help boost the career of fighters like Gennady Golovkin, Keith Thurman, Amir Khan, Shawn Porter, and Danny Garcia. Mayweather can’t let them stand on his shoulders to help them see far. They’ve got to be able to do it on their own without a crutch.



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