Leonard Ellerbe weighs in on potential next opponents for Canelo Alvarez, with him giving his analysis that a fight against David Benavidez would be a much bigger PPV success than him potentially fighting Terence Crawford. Check out some of what he had to say below.
Ellerbe on if Canelo fighting Crawford sells more than him fighting Benavidez
“No. I know the numbers, I know the business. No, it’s not (bigger). It has nothing to do with whether or not somebody deserves the fight or whether they should fight — we’re just talking about the business. The Benavidez vs Canelo fight and Crawford vs Canelo, it’s no comparison.
“Terence Crawford is the best fighter in the sport, I mean, he’s proven that. But it has nothing to do with the business, and you got to know what that means. For an example, Errol Spence and Terence Crawford, two tremendous fighters — everybody knows Errol’s my guy — but the biggest fight in boxing all along was Tank and Ryan. Their fight (Spence vs Crawford) was the most talked about fight in the last six or seven years; two young, undefeated guys in their prime.
“But the business, the business, said something else. That fight did half of what Tank’s fight did, and their fight did very well. But, again, you just got to understand how this works and when you have the kind of experience that we’ve had, understanding what these market places look like, and piracy, and all the factors that are involved with the success of a PPV event, it just comes down to knowing what you’re doing and what you’re not doing.
“See, we’re not in a situation over here where we’re burning money. You have one promoter in particular who don’t give a fuck, it’s like it don’t matter. But we try to make smart, conscientious decisions…sometimes you make fights people don’t agree with but, again, there’s always a plan, a method to the madness, and there’s a long-term plan.
“I’m excited for this card to kick off for Amazon Prime. This will be a tremendous card full of great fights. No, this is not the All-Star team per se, but these are some very good fights and we think there’s going to be a tremendous response to the support.”
On who he’d favor to win between Canelo and Crawford
“I haven’t really thought about that. But if you ask me the business, the business of which fight is bigger? The Benavidez fight is bigger. It’s a much bigger fight.”