

MACAU – Promoter Bob Arum likes to call Saturday's bout (Sunday in Macau) between Manny Pacquiao and Brandon Rios the first step in the globalization of his brand.

Arum has spoken wistfully over the last several years of expanding Top Rank's empire beyond the U.S. borders to take advantage of interest in boxing around the world.

A pair of trial runs at the Venetian Macao, in April and July, were enormously successful, and led to the Pacquiao-Rios bout winding up at the resort's CotaiArena, where a sell-out crowd guaranteed a live paid gate in excess of $8 million.

As eager as Arum is to talk about expanding his brand globally, it's hardly anything new.

The first fight that Arum promoted, the 1966 heavyweight title bout between Muhammad Ali and challenger George Chuvalo, was staged in Toronto.

In 1975, he promoted arguably the great match in boxing history, the third bout between Ali and Joe Frazier, on a searing hot October morning in Manila.

Always, though, the show would return to the U.S. and, more often than not, to Las Vegas, which in the late '70s and early '80s earned the nickname of the Fight Capital of the World.

It's still known that way, and probably will be for some time, but if the Pacquiao-Rios fight is successful, it could mean more boxing matches in these exotic locations.

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It all hinged upon a largely unknown junior flyweight from China who was turning professional after winning a bronze and two gold medals in the Olympics.

Zou Shiming's managers reached out to Arum to gauge his interest in him. Arum agreed to talk more, but when he hung up the phone that first day, he was struck by a thought:

Why?

"I said to myself after I got off the phone, 'What the [expletive] would I want with a 112-pounder from China?' " he said. "At first glance, it didn't seem to make sense for us."

But the next day, Arum received a call from a friend, Rob Goldstein, an executive at The Venetian in Las Vegas. Goldstein reached out to see if Top Rank would have interest in promoting boxing at its Asian properties.

Ed Tracy, the president and CEO of Sands China Ltd., which operates the Venetian Macao, is a long-time boxing fan. He was the CEO of Trump hotels in Atlantic City in the 1980s and oversaw a series of major fights.

He, too, had been speaking with Zou's team.

"They told us about this one and only gold medal boxer from China and that he wanted to go pro," Tracy said. "I said, if there were ever a time in history to coalesce the boxing effort around something significant in China, this would be it."

Zou largely meant nothing in Las Vegas, where Top Rank is based, and would struggle to sell 1,000 tickets in a casino venue there were he to headline.

But he is immensely popular in China and that was good news for both Arum and Tracy.

For Arum, it meant the beginning of his dream of expanding the brand internationally. He landed an incredible haul of talent from the 2012 Olympics, signing fighters from China, Russia, Ukraine, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Brazil and the U.S.

He sees those fighters as an entrée into other markets. After Top Rank signed 2012 Olympic silver medalist Esquivo Falcao of Brazil, it reached a deal to televise his fights on Globo there.

Even if Top Rank doesn't stage a fight in Brazil, it will make more money by putting Falcao on its cards and selling the TV rights to Globo for broadcast there, Top Rank president Todd duBoef said.

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