Team Mayweather Response: Pacquiao is Not a Bigger Star

By Robert Morales

Leonard Ellerbe on Saturday had a strong response to a story that appeared on BoxingScene.com regarding negotiations for a fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.

For one thing, Ellerbe said the suggestion that Pacquiao has become a bigger international star than Mayweather is off-base.

"When you are talking internationally, Floyd did the largest pay-per-view ever in England with over a million buys against Ricky Hatton and Pacquiao and Hatton did under 300,000 buys," said Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions, to BoxingScene. "And that was after Pacquiao had beaten Oscar De La Hoya."

Ellerbe also found interesting promoter Bob Arum's boasting about last Saturday's fight between Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto doing more buys than the fight in September between Mayweather and Juan Manuel Marquez. HBO announced this week Pacquiao-Cotto did 1.25 buys and Mayweather-Marquez did 1 million buys.

Here's the rub: Ellerbe points out to BoxingScene that Pacquiao had a good dance partner in Cotto and Mayweather did not in Marquez, who has never really been a big pay-per-view draw.

"That is not a compelling argument at all," Ellerbe said. "Hopefully, that is not their strategy because it is a very weak one at best. As I have stated a number of times, when America speaks, the numbers are quantifiable.

"It's not one manager's opinion, not one promoter's opinion. The numbers don't lie. If your argument is that you did a better number based on the Cotto fight, all you have to do is ask yourself this question: clearly, Cotto has a much better pay-per-view pedigree as evidenced by the success he has had on HBO pay-per-view in a number of high-profile fights with high-profile fighters such as Miguel Cotto, "Sugar" Shane Mosley and Zab Judah. Cotto has been the A side in every one of those fights."

For instance, Cotto-Antonio Margarito did about 500,000 buys in July 2008.

"When it comes to Marquez, even though he is a great fighter, he has had no success fighting on pay-per-view," Ellerbe said. "For example, the only time he was the A side he did less than 100,000 buys on HBO pay-per-view against Joel Casamayor. So if they are hanging their hopes on Pacquiao's success in his last fight against Cotto, it is a weak argument, at best.

"The numbers don't lie. Team Mayweather will continue to deal with the facts as they are quantifiable and irrefutable."

Ellerbe said he didn't want to discuss any purse percentages at this time.

One thing's for sure, these negotiations figure to bring some interesting conversation.

Source: boxingscene.com