Manny Pacquiao has purchased shares of an Asian-based MMA organization, but that doesn’t mean he will be trading in his boxing gloves for the Octagon anytime soon.
The Pacman has purchased an undisclosed number of shares in the Asian-based One Fighting Championship, CEO Victor Cui confirmed to Yahoo Sports.
“I’m pretty pumped,” Cui said. “There are a ton of reasons why I’m pretty excited about this. Obviously, Manny Pacquiao is a global sports icon and having him as a part of our organization as a shareholder and promoting One FC and promoting the sport is huge for the sport in the region. It promotes awareness and growth.”
Cui described Pacquiao as a “relatively new MMA fan.” Pacquiao has a series of gyms he owns in Asia and all of them offer MMA classes and MMA training areas.
“You could see him calculating the difference from the boxing gloves to the MMA gloves,” Cui said. “He said to me, ‘Man, someone could get hurt with the power of my punches if I could wear these.'”
One FC has a strong following in the Philippines where Pacquiao is beloved and it is one of the fastest rising markets for mixed martial arts. One FC will have the opportunity to leverage Pacquiao’s popularity. Dana White has sought to host a UFC event in the Philippines for quite some time. The UFC in 2008 sent former light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell to the Philippines on a promotional tour and he drew 4,000 fans to a workout.
