‘Everybody can’t be Tank Davis’: Ellerbe reacts to upcoming fights for Stevenson and Lopez
Shakur Stevenson and Teofimo Lopez have received ho-hum receptions to the latest reports of their next intended fights.
Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe talks to Fight Hype about the less-than-thrilling word on the upcoming fights for Shakur Stevenson and Teofimo Lopez, with Stevenson supposedly slated to take on Artem Harutyunyan and Lopez to face Steve Claggett. Neither one of those fights have piqued interest from the general boxing audience, and Ellerbe says it’s a process to build those fighters into mainstream attractions.
Ellerbe on poor fan reception for the reported upcoming fights for Teofimo Lopez and Shakur Stevenson
“I’m not knocking nobody’s event, wish them the best of luck. And again, Arum understands how to build fighters. It’s a process, guys. Everybody can’t be Tank Davis. We did that shit, doing it, ‘cause we know.
“That motherfucker would love to be in business, in a situation where he’s generating revenue. He hadn’t got there yet. He got some good fighters but everyone can’t be an attraction, it’s a process and they’re doing things the way they need to do as a company and who can question any of that?
“Teo’s a very good fighter, Shakur’s a very good fighter. Wish them the best success in their next events and what they got moving forward. But everybody can’t be an attraction. That is a process over a period of time. It’s hard as hell to generate fan interest...everybody can’t sell out venues.”
On the possibility of Stevenson joining PBC after this last fight with Top Rank
“I can’t speak on any of that. Shakur is under contract with Top Rank, he has an excellent team behind him, Bob and them know what they’re doing and they’ve done a very good job with his career thus far and that’s on everybody else. I don’t have anything to do with that.”