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Remember a few weeks ago when Floyd Mayweather (wearing 16 ounce gloves) and Conor McGregor (wearing less than 16 ounce gloves) both shared videos showing off their hand speed? Or in McGregor’s case, the lack thereof. And remember how those videos threw the internet into a tizzy talking about how McGregor was going to get murdered based on the stark differences in hand speed?
Yeah, well, Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe isn’t buying it. Here are the videos side-by-side to help you remember or in case you missed them the first time around.
Mayweather and McGregor training videos from today side by side. 😂 pic.twitter.com/cAJDPy9Dwn
— Robert Littal BSO (@BSO) June 29, 2017
Based on those videos one wouldn’t give McGregor a CM Punk’s chance in hell of winning his upcoming fight with Mayweather. But don’t be so quick to judge, says Ellerbe.
As MMA Fighting reports…
“Conor McGregor is a smart dude,” Ellerbe said. “He’s a smart dude. Do y’all actually believe that footage he put out there is real? I’m just being honest. Do you honestly believe that he put that footage out there and it’s real looking the way it looked? C’mon now.
“Guess what? He tricked all y’all. Every last one of you. That he looked slow on the bag, he’s doing this and doing that. Y’all can fall for it. We’re not.”
Ellerbe said he has watched McGregor fight and, from years of experience in the sport of boxing, has a “good eye” for skill. Ellerbe believes McGregor is far better than the video he put out on social media.
“I see a guy who’s got tremendous timing,” Ellerbe said. “Tremendous timing. How he’s coming over the top of guys’ jabs and when he touches them and turns it over, and then he’s doing damage. I mean, real damage. If he ain’t knocking him out, they’re falling down. And then they be messed up.”
This isn’t the first time Ellerbe has given props to McGregor as a legitimate threat to his man Mayweather either. Last week Ellerbe revealed that he and many others in Mayweather’s camp really believe Conor can win, reports TMZ.
“I’ve been saying this all along, all this disrespecting these fighters and saying this guy doesn’t have a chance. That’s some bulls**t.”
He didn’t leave it there either, telling us he’s not the only guy in the Mayweather camp that isn’t on board with the “Conor has no shot” line of thinking.
“I’m not buying it, and Floyd Mayweather’s not buying it either. He (Conor) has tremendous punching power and when he touches guys they go down.”
So is Ellerbe just drumming up more hype or does he really believe it? Hard to say for certain, but one thing is 100% guaranteed: win or lose both fighters are going to make a whole lot of money. So really, once all is said and done, there are no losers here in this fight. Except for maybe the fans, but we’ll know more about that come August 29th.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BVVcvO8gIhc/?taken-by=floydmayweather
Check out Ellerbe’s entire interview with TMZ below and see what you think.