Leonard Ellerbe knows Floyd Mayweather Jr. better than anyone other than the mother who carried him in her womb. Ellerbe is Floyd Jr.'s adviser, confidant, trainer and most of all, his best friend. So it comes on good authority when Ellerbe says Mayweather's fight with Oscar De La Hoya on May 5 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas will be the final fight of his brilliant career.
"There's no doubt this will be his last fight unless something spectacular would change his mind," Ellerbe told me recently. "With me being his friend and adviser, I'm the closest person to him and that's what he's told me he wants to do. That's why I'm 100 percent certain this will be his last fight."
Most people outside the Mayweather camp are skeptical this will be the final time we'll see Floyd Jr. in the ring. On the surface, the timing doesn't seem quite right. If he loses to De La Hoya, Mayweather doesn't seem to be the type of fighter who would end his career after his only defeat. If the fight does big business, which it will, there will likely be a rematch. If there's no rematch, then Mayweather could challenge Shane Mosley and seek to go out as a winner.
Should Mayweather beat De La Hoya, retirement is more likely, but still might seem premature. He will be universally regarded as the best pound-per-pound boxer on the planet and in the discussion as one of the top 50 boxers in history. He probably won't become the money machine that De La Hoya is, but certainly his purses will increase and he may finally get the universal recognition from general sports fans that he has been lacking.
To retire on such a perfect scenario has proven difficult for athletes, especially boxers. Bernard Hopkins seemed to have scripted the perfect going away party when he defeated Antonio Tarver for the light heavyweight title last summer. But Hopkins was only six months into his "retirement" before he announced he was returning to the ring.
Even De La Hoya keeps putting off retirement always lured back by one more challenge and the $20 million paychecks.
But Ellerbe says Floyd Jr. (37-0, 24 KOs) is serious about walking away after May 5 because there would be nothing or no one else to challenge the 30-year-old Mayweather. "He looking to go out and putting on a spectacular performance and take the WBC 154-pound title away from Oscar," Ellerbe said. "Then Floyd will be the only person in the history of the sport who will be six-time world champion in five different weight class in under nine years.
"Remaining undefeated, that's the key," Ellerbe went on. "It's never been done in the history of the sport where a guy has gone from weight class to weight class and remained undefeated. These are the kind of things the historians and the media will appreciate when his career is all said and done."
After De La Hoya, Ellerbe says there are no more challenges for Mayweather. "Who is he going to fight? (Miguel) Cotto? (Antonio) Margarito? Cotto is fighting everybody Floyd has already beaten like Zab Judah. Margarito hasn't fought anybody to warrant a fight with Floyd. Paul Williams? What has he done?"
Ellerbe says Mayweather is ready to develop his other interests: including his record label Philthy Rich Records and his promotional company Mayweather Promotions.
"He's done a wonderful job fighting the best fighters out there," Ellberbe said. "People never really had the utmost respect for Ali until he was away from the sport. The critics will appreciate Floyd when it's all said and done."
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