Floyd Mayweather CEO Leonard Ellerbe continued his feud with Eddie Hearn with an extraordinary exchange between the two.
Ellerbe and Hearn have serious grudges against each other, as the former berates the Matchroom Boxing boss’s work on American soil.
However, the hate reached a new low on Thursday, when UK fans accused Mayweather’s team boss of playing the race card.
floyd mayweather CEO
The man who worked with boxing legend Floyd Mayweather during his rise to the top held nothing back. Ellerbe was clearly in a gloating mood after Hearn’s involvement in Canelo vs. GGG 3 returned lower-than-expected Pay Per View numbers.
Canelo Alvarez’s WBC, WBO, WBA and IBF super middleweight title defense against Gennadiy Golovkin reportedly sold only half a million buys in the United States.
If this information is correct, which DAZN did not deny, then the T-Mobile Arena battle in Las Vegas had failed by Canelo’s standards.
DAZN released a statement pointing to over one million worldwide sales of the DAZN PPV. However, those sales included the more than 200 territories and subscriptions.
World Boxing News reported that those numbers average 1,500 per region outside of the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada.
Ellerbe vs. Hearn
Jumping right in to offer his condolences to Hearn, Ellerbe stated, “She may need a little encouragement, so let’s sing her a song, ‘There’s no sun on DAZN!’
The seasoned businessman was teasing Hearn with the same song when the Essex native sang, “Ain’t No Sunshine when Tank’s Gone,” in reference to Gervonta Davis considering leaving Mayweather Promotions.
Hearn promptly responded to start the insults: “Blimey Lenny, we just made a million purchases. When was the last time he was involved in a fight that made over 100k?
“Don’t count Floyd because you were just packing his jockstrap.”
Ellerbe had no problem fighting back with his own insults.
“Enough, Edward. I thought I’d send you a ditty to cheer you up. Let me know if you need me, Floyd, Stephen [Espinoza, Showtime Head of Boxing]or Al [Haymon, Premier Boxing Champions promoter] to show you how to do the big boy stuff.
“For your information, all the big players here are laughing at you. You don’t know what the fuck you’re doing in America.”
Offering advice to Ellerbe, Hearn stated: “Delete Twitter, mate. You’ve had an absolute stinker!”
Ellerbe replied: “There is no time to go back and forth with you. I’m trying to do some big boy shit.
“You know those record-breaking things that you know nothing about. I hope you cheer up, friend!”
After a period of quiet between the pair, Ellerbe faced criticism for what Hearn fans described as a “career card” move.
“In my opinion, his problem with me, Stephen and Al all along has been one thing and one thing only,” Ellerbe revealed.
“You have the best executive of the network in sports and entertainment, who is Hispanic. You have three brothers who have broken all records in this business.
“It has failed to take over the US market. as she said it was [going to with DAZN in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021].”
“Race Card”
The reaction of Hearn’s followers was immediate on social networks. They were offended that Ellerbe directed such comments at a British promoter who has worked with all races of fighters throughout his career in many contests, winners or losers.
Hearn’s first signing after replacing his father, Barry, was Olympic boxer Audley Harrison.
One said: “Hearn puts 80m in AJ’s pocket after a loss but it’s still about the race take a day off.”
“Ellerbe crying and playing the race card again, how original,” added another.
A third said: Eddie Hearn is winding you up. He has absolutely nothing to do with race. Why are you putting that in it?
“You’ve had fun, and there’s a tug of war. Show how upset you are to say something like that.
Temperatures continue to rise between Ellerbe and Hearn following previous offers of an exhibition or benefit match between the two promoters.
In this day and age, I could never rule it out. British bookmakers had already bet on a battle, with Hearn the slight favorite over his American nemesis.
The views expressed in this article are the views of Phil Jay.
WBN editor Phil Jay has over ten years of boxing news experience. He follows WBN on Facebook @officialworldboxingnews, Instagram and Twitter @worldboxingnews.
