Exclusive: Leonard Ellerbe: I’m Very Confident That J’Leon Love Will Beat David Benavidez

Carlos ToroMarch 13, 2019, 11:30 pm

Although J’Leon Love is coming into his fight against David Benavidez as a big underdog, Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe has faith Love can pull off the upset.

Ellerbe spoke in a recent media conference call on behalf of Love to talk about his fight against Benavidez. Love is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Peter Quillin last August and was asked by Fightful if Love took anything away from the loss to Quillin. Ellerbe responded by saying Love had a lot of things to deal in his life at the time of the fight against Quillin and that he may not have been as prepared as he would have liked.

“Not to make any excuses, he had a lot going on in his life, a lot on his mind. And a lot of times what happens is, when a fighter is not focused, they come into a fight and they’re not fully prepared. But again not taking anything from Peter Quillin, outstanding fighter, but that was then,” Ellerbe said.

But now Love is fully focused on the current task at hand and Ellerbe proclaimed that he is “confident” that Love can ruin Benavidez’s plans of fighting for the WBC super middleweight title once again. Benavidez is fighting for the first time since failing a drug test and losing his WBC title.

“Thankfully he got this opportunity to fight a great young fighter, David Benavidez. And J’Leon is focused. He’s an expecting father. He’s highly motivated. He’s laying it on the line. He had a terrific camp and I’m just very excited to see him get this opportunity to go on there, and we know it’s going to be a tough fight because we know what Benavidez brings to the table. But I’m very confident that J’Leon will win this fight,” Ellerbe said.

The fight between Benavidez and Love will be the co-main event to the March 16 pay-per-view card from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The main event of that fight is an IBF welterweight title fight between Errol Spence Jr. and Mikey Garcia. Ellerbe’s comments can be seen in the video at the top of the page.