Ellerbe Backs Canelo Alvarez’s $200 Million Ask for Benavidez Fight, Clears Up ‘Scared’ Accusations

Allan Binoy | 01/09/2024
Ellerbe Backs Canelo Alvarez’s $200 Million Ask for Benavidez Fight, Clears Up ‘Scared’ Accusations

Canelo Alvarez wants $200 million to fight David Benavidez. Naturally, many fans found that number to be a ridiculous amount. However, Floyd Mayweather’s advisor for years, Leonard Ellerbe disagrees.

The former CEO of Mayweather promotions does not think the Mexican fighter is being unrealistic with the amount of money he’s asking for. Being the face of boxing, Alvarez can demand the highest purse and even justify it because of the eyes he brings to his fights.

Now, that is an accurate statement!

There is no disputing the fact that the Mexican is the biggest draw in boxing at the moment. No other fighter even comes close to him in terms of generating PPV buys at the moment.

So when fans accused him of ducking David Benavidez and asking for too much money, Ellerbe let his opinion known in an interview with FightHubTV,

“I hear a lot of pushback saying that he’s asking for too much money. There’s never enough money when you’re getting up there and putting your life on the line. I support his decision to do it whenever he’s ready to do it.”

Ellerbe also dismissed the idea of Canelo being scared of Benavidez. Asking fans to just take a glance at his record, he demanded that they show any proof of ducking anyone.

In fact, Ellerbe claimed that Canelo welcomes the toughest challenges and Benavidez will not be able to put up anything that he has not seen in the ring yet.

Canelo not scared!

Ellerbe has witnessed first hand how fearless Canelo Alvarez is. As an undefeated young boxer, he took on Floyd Mayweather who was just past his prime and gave ‘Money’ one of his better fights.

A long time has passed since then and the Mexican has now replaced Mayweather Jr. on the top of boxing’s Mount Olympus. And if Canelo wasn’t scared of Mayweather when the American was at the peak of his powers, it’s unlikely that he’s wetting his pants for Benavidez.

At least that’s what Ellerbe believes.

“There’s no such thing as him (Canelo) being scared of Benavidez! That man has fought everybody!…He has an incredible resume, what’s he gonna be scared of Benavidez for?”

 

And make no mistake, the former CEO of Mayweather promotions is himself a fan of David Benavidez. However, he remains adamant about there being nothing that Benavidez could bring to the table that Canelo hasn’t seen before.

Post Edited By: Smrutisnat Jena
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About the author

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Allan Binoy

Allan Binoy is a MMA journalist at The SportsRush. Taken to the sport in 2015, thanks to a certain Conor McGregor, Allan has himself dabbled in the martial arts. And having graduated from Loyola College, Chennai, with a degree in English Literature, he has learnt to use his love for language to have a voice in the MMA community. Allan has been writing about the gladiatorial stories for more than three years now and has pursued excellence at a number of reputable media organizations, covering every UFC PPV in the last couple of years. In addition to this, the southpaw is also a semi-professional soccer player for Diego Juniors FC in Pune, playing in the Pune Super Division League.

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