MMA superstar Conor McGregor brought Floyd Mayweather out of retirement a second time when he swapped over from the UFC to take on ‘Money’ in a lucrative boxing match two years ago.
Mayweather claimed a 10th round TKO to extend his unbeaten streak to 50-0, surpassing Rocky Marciano’s previous record in the process, and reportedly earned in excess of $300million (£232m) for the Las Vegas showdown.
The American, an 11-time, five-division world champion, has not fought since although rumours persist that he could come out of retirement yet again despite having turned 42 back in February.
But Ellerbe has joked that McGregor essentially copied Mayweather’s style in how he became a huge success in the octagon, rapidly emerging as one of the UFC’s biggest names as a two-weight champion.
The Mayweather Promotions chief was discussing his respect for boxer Canelo Alvarez, who will hope to maintain his reputation as one of the sport’s pound-for-pound kings when he faces Daniel Jacobs on May 4.
Canelo is 51-2-1 and the Mexican, a multiple-time world champion at light middleweight, middleweight and super-middleweight, suffered his only career loss to Mayweather via majority decision at the MGM Grand in September 2013.
Alvarez again returns to Las Vegas to face Jacobs where he will put his WBA (Super), WBC, The Ring and lineal middleweight titles on the line while competing for the American’s IBF belt.
And Ellerbe insists he has a lot of respect for both men, while revealing the message he gave to Canelo five years ago after his loss to Mayweather.
Talking to Fight Hype, Ellerbe said: “After Floyd beat Canelo, he was f***ed up. He was f***ed up mentally because in his mind, he thought he let his people down.
“We were still in MGM a couple days after the fight, I put my arm round him. He was with his guy and we had a good conversation with him.
“I told him, ‘This is going to be a great learning experience for you. You’re going to come back from this and you’ve got a chance to become a great, great fighter. You just lost to Floyd Mayweather, there’s nothing wrong with that. Use this as a learning experience.’
“I think he’s always had a mutual respect for that and he’s a hell of a fighter. Whether he’s Mexican, African-American, white, Hispanic, he’s a hell of a fighter. He can fight his ass off. I respect that all day.
“Boxing or MMA, I feel the same way about Conor McGregor. We have a mutual respect for one another. What he did, he stole Floyd’s whole blueprint!
“He took his blueprint then took that to the UFC and he mastered it and became the biggest star over there and made a s**t load of money doing that. It’s really not stealing, what he did, he emulated it and it worked.
“It’s not going to work for everyone else. I admire stuff like that. That’s why we had a mutual respect for one another. He has a great deal of respect for me, you saw that, that’s my guy.
“When you build these relationships, you have a mutual respect. It’s business at the end of the day but all these guys are trying to feed their families and put themselves in the best situation to be successful. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
Ellerbe refused to give his verdict on the winner of Canelo vs Jacobs, though did say: “It’s a good fight. They [Canelo’s team] wouldn’t put him in a fight if they didn’t think 100 per-cent that they’re going to win that fight.”