Rachel and Nonito Donaire (left) in a video conference with Probellum president Richard Schaefer (right). | Screengrab from the YouTube video.
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Boxing’s newest promotional outfit, Probellum, has revealed its big plans for Philippine boxing.
Richard Schaefer, the president of Probellum, recently graced the episode of Beyond The Ring, a YouTube channel put up by four-division world champion Nonito Donaire Jr. (41-6, 27KOs) and his wife Rachel on October 13.
In the interview, Schaefer officially announced that Nonito and Rachel are Probellum’s brand ambassadors. They are tasked to oversee the boxing developments in the Philippines to discover new talents and forge partnerships with local promoters.
“Rachel and Nonito are going to be very instrumental in that,” said Schaefer, the former top honcho of Golden Boy Promotions.
“We want to empower local promoters in the Philippines. As a matter of a fact, Nonito and Rachel will try to reach out to some of them over the coming days. We’re going to see who we’re going to work with. It’s building the foundation in the Philippines.”
“We want to sign with a local promoter and empower them with the money. We’re not going to ask them for money. We are going there with the money to empower them so they can build their business and they can attract talent and that they can build up talent.”
Probellum recently signed a promotional contract for Donaire, the reigning World Boxing Council (WBC) world bantamweight champion.
STRATEGIC ALLIANCES
Schaefer revealed his blueprint on how he could ‘elevate’ Philippine boxing as the president of Probellum.
Aside from tapping the husband and wife tandem of the Donaires, he wants to forge ‘strategic alliances’ with Filipino boxing promoters who are also yearning for international exposure.
“So how are we going to do that? We’re going to enter into strategic alliances, co-promotional agreements with promoters in the Philippines,” said Schaefer.
So far, Probellum has forged co-promotional partnerships with several promoters from Germany, Spain, Latvia, New Zealand, Dominican Republic, Australia, Indonesia, and Ghana.
And the boxing outfit is determined to penetrate the vibrant Philippine boxing scene.
“We will work very closely with Nonito and Rachel. They are going to help us, they will be our brand ambassadors and they will help us find the right talent, make the right connections because they know the market so well, much better than I do,” added Schaefer.
In addition, he wants Filipino boxers to fight for major titles in the Philippines rather than doing it abroad to somehow give them much-needed support and recognition from local boxing fans.
“It would be a dream for me to build young Filipino male or female fighters and have them actually win the world title in the Philippines. Imagine and they go defend the title in the Philippines,” he added.
Aside from signing Donaire Jr., Probellum is also involved with another big name in Philippine boxing, the WBO world bantamweight champion John Riel Casimero (31-4,21KOs).
Probellum will be promoting Casimero’s fifth mandatory title defense in December versus Paul Butler (33-2, 15KOs) of the United Kingdom. /rcg
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