MANNY Pacquiao is set to fight this Sunday for his world welterweight crown against Shane Mosley in Las Vegas. There?s not much news there. Mosley is old and while some people believe he can spring a surprise, most are willing to bet he will lose.
What is news are the developments swirling around Pacquiao in the United States. The feel is different this time around because the claim that the Filipino boxer has become a major draw in American soil is no longer just hype. And Manny and his promoter are cashing in on it.
Top Rank is no longer just involved in Pacquiao?s boxing affairs. In February, it hired marketing veteran Lucia McKelvey to take charge of the Filipino?s endorsement deals in the US.
Two major endorsement deals have been announced ahead of the Pacquiao-Mosley fight.
The first is the one with Hewlett Packard (HP) that will have boxing?s pound-for-pound king endorse its new 9.7-inch TouchPad computer. The other is with a fruits and vegetables firm, State Street Produce.
The HP campaign has television, radio, print, outdoor and billboard components that will involve Pacquiao and will be global. State Street, meanwhile, will feature the Filipino icon?s mug in its bags and boxes and even its delivery trucks. The boxer?s image will therefore be ubiquitous in the US and everywhere.
We are no stranger to these kinds of deals, though. In the Philippines, Pacquiao has long become a major endorser, landing deals to promote almost every product. What Arum and McKelvey are doing is to do the same for the Pacman in the US and internationally.
?This good, clean stuff and these huge, international companies are really taking to this happy kid with the big smile,? said Top Rank?s Bob Arum.
Which makes Pacquiao winning this Sunday?s fight doubly necessary. This is one of the reasons why he trained seriously for the bout. A loss to Mosley would dent his status as products endorser and dampen the interest of firms in the US.
If he wins, he will continue to climb heights not only in his already Hall of Fame boxing career but also in his stature as products endorser and his capability as dollar earner.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on May 06, 2011.
