Mayweather to attempt unique 1-2 combination

Leonard Ellerbe predicts it will create the closest thing we have to a real-life Superman. Forget that. Clark Kent couldn’t hold Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s pair of leather Capezios today.

What’s so great about X-ray vision and the ability to fly when you can train for the Foxtrot one minute and a mega-fight the next?

It happened. Mayweather has evidently discovered a physical challenge even he might be stretched to conquer. The world’s best boxer and his sport’s most conditioned athlete is expected to be among those celebrities included this morning when ABC announces its cast for a fifth season of “Dancing with the Stars.”

Think about it: The show premieres Sept. 24 and its finale is scheduled for Nov. 27, which will make things fairly compelling should Mayweather follow other athletes/dancing winners such as Emmitt Smith and Apolo Anton Ohno and make the finals.

Less than two weeks later, there is a little matter of Mayweather opposing Ricky Hatton at the MGM Grand Garden in a fight of two undefeated champions.

Which makes you wonder what concerns the Mayweather camp most: A grueling dance regimen in Los Angeles that could overlap as much as five weeks of training preparations for Hatton or someone from ABC seeking a live interview with uncle and trainer Roger Mayweather, an FCC violation waiting to happen.

Nobody seems too worried about the former.

“I have been working on making this happen for a long time because the show is something Floyd has always wanted to do,” said Ellerbe, the fighter’s adviser. “He loves a challenge, and this is the ultimate one. Floyd is a terrific dancer, but he knows absolutely nothing about ballroom. He’s the first to admit it. But we never talk about losing at anything. There is no such thing as second place to Floyd.

“Emmitt was great in winning the competition in (season three). But this isn’t the same thing. This would have been like him dancing on the show while also preparing to play in the Super Bowl. Floyd is in this to win. He will push himself to the limit physically both dancing and training to fight Ricky Hatton on Dec. 8. When Floyd wins the dance competition and then beats Hatton, people will talk about it for years and years. This is history.”

This is also risky.

You can’t buy the exposure of a nationally televised audience of more than 20 million weekly. It’s a marketing dream for Mayweather. But most of the athletes who have competed on the show (Smith, Ohno, Jerry Rice, Clyde Drexler) have been retired, and another (Evander Holyfield) just doesn’t realize he should have remained that way. They were able to train as dancers for hours a day and then fall asleep. Mayweather gets to train hours a day to dance and then, well, train several more hours those days to fight.

He might have the desire, but will he have the legs?

Boogying at Pure or with an employee or 10 at Spearmint Rhino is one thing. Learning the tango and waltz and pasodoble is another.

Hatton will spend his time in England concentrating solely on how to crack Mayweather’s prodigious defensive style. He will eat, sleep, drink (Lord knows what) and think only about Dec. 8.

Mayweather will spend part of his time learning the difference between promenade and guapacha while posing in the mirror not to admire his physique following a boxing workout but to correct his posture for the samba.

One thing is for sure: Difficult as the process might be, he won’t lose focus.

Ellerbe said the fighter has begun working with his professional partner for the show, Karina Smirnoff. If you have seen her, you won’t be surprised if there is nothing defensive about Mayweather the dancer.

“The first day they met, Floyd walked in and said ‘You’re the boss. I’m the student. I’m here to learn,’ ” Ellerbe said.

Thing is, he could win. He has the charisma. The personality. You figure he has a far better chance at charming the voting public more than other reported celebrity contestants such as Wayne Newton, Lou Ferrigno, Jane Seymour and Mark Cuban.

But he could have his hands full with Aaron Carter, one of those annoying boy-band/dancer types who, as much as we can gather, is best known for proposing to a former Playboy model onstage at the Palms and then breaking things off a week later. That, and the fact he looks like someone named Jesse McCartney.

“(Mayweather’s) work ethic as an athlete should be an advantage,” said Laura Holt, a dance instructor at Arthur Murray Las Vegas. “Being in that kind of shape will make it easier for him. It won’t be a walk in the park. It will be hard training. But if he has a lot of self-confidence, it will definitely help him.”

If that’s all Mayweather needs to win, boy-band guy should quit now.

Ed Graney’s column is published Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. He can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.