7:55pm -- Snapped a picture of Belfort.
7:56pm -- Posted pic of Belfort on Facebook.
7:58pm -- Checked into Hulk's via FourSquare.
8:10pm -- Sponsor (WOW) randomly shows up.
No sooner do I post a picture online of where I was but suddenly I am "randomly" visited by various people, with my sponsor showing up so closely after my arrival being the eyebrow raiser. This is what it means to be a sponsored athlete, a sponsored business -- your business IS their business.
I have made myself very accessible to my sponsors, perhaps more so because most of them are Korean and don't speak English and now I have a business that partly rides on my image. While Adidas easily checked up on me via my personal homepage here and via Facebook, other sponsors use such apps like FourSquare, MapMyRun and KakaoStory to see my activity. Herbal Life for example, is a potential business sponsor looking to connect and they follow my KakaoStory.
Sponsors are very much a big thing for both businesses and professional athletes and in my life my sport is my job and business. I caught unto the importance of sponsors very early in my boxing career via a friend here who is a professional Korean golfer, sponsored by Puma as well as other noteable names. "You need a wow factor" was his advice. "Brands either want someone that fits their image to a T or someone who breaks the mold and sticks out". In my case, I've tried to stick out.
My first boxing sponsor made the difference between me getting a game purse (payout) of $500 and getting more than a few grand. I sold myself for that fight and boy did I really cash out big by pushing the fact that I was a blond foreign girl fighting for Korea. I had the "wow factor", that image and background that differentiated me and made me stick out from the rest of the female fighers here in Korea. I no longer have the platinum blond hair that I sported for my Japan fight nor do I really have much hair considering how short it is. Now my wow factor is that I am no longer one of those young, wet-behind-the-ears female boxers. Korea considers me old. And while may age may not raise eyebrows or be an issue of chat in Canada, this is Korea and the vast majority of its boxers are young. I vouch that they're young because Korea doesn't pay their pro fighters well. I remember being so shocked when I heard Snickers had defended his title belt for the third time and the fight purse was only a grand. He then had to split it 50/50 with Junior Mint, a practice that all boxers do but Korea seems to split it quite brutally. I made more money at my debut fight than Snickers did defending his title as Super Light Champion. Sounds brutal... because it is!!! It was brutal, it was insulting, and considering the money and royalties I was getting from my sponsors, I felt embarrassed for him. I am by no means even remotely on the same level of him in the sport of boxing but he is a Korean guy fighting in Korea, in a sport that's predominately male and already struggling for fight payouts, it is his reality.
As for my reality, I'm planning a comeback and I've got my female champion gal pal rooting me on. She's got two kids, is in her mid 30's and is still going strong as not only as a boxer but as a boxer who is currently in champion rankings. It surely helps that Snickers is now 100% on board with supporting me and helping me succeed with boxing because there was a time when he wasn't. And it most definitely helps that I am sponsored by people/companies that believe in me. I consider myself especially blessed to have crossed paths with WOW and have him as our main sponsor. Unlike past sponsors of mine who really could care less about me beyond my looks and making sure I showed up for meetings in pretty clothes, WOW has really involved himself in not only our business and my boxing but also my life and he's a huge support system. I hadn't told him that I'd be training tonight, nor did I even tell Snickers I was club-bound. I simply showed up to box. Him showing up so expectantly was pretty cool and very encouraging.
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