KELLY SWANSON, the expert publicist who represents Floyd Mayweather, has illustrated the sheer scale of her man’s May 2 mega-fight with Manny Pacquiao. After telling the March 12 issue of Boxing News magazine the fight had come “at just the right time”, countering the critics and killjoys lamenting that the fight did not take place closer to the prime of the two combatants, she outlined just how big an attraction the showdown is, even two months before fight night.
“We’re planning the press conference in Los Angeles for this Wednesday and the requests we’re receiving from the media – not just the regular boxing media but international news organisations and outlets, network news and morning shows here – I think we’re seeing something phenomenal,” Swanson told us, exclusively. “It’s just amazing. I got an email yesterday from the Goodyear Blimp and they want to do a flyover of the press conference and it’s not even outside! I told them and they said, ‘Oh no, we can still do it.’”
The relationship between Mayweather and Swanson has come a long way. The pair will celebrate 10 years together around the time of the Pacquiao fight, Kelly coming on board the team in the build-up to Floyd’s scintillating 2005 win over Arturo Gatti. Her humility precludes her from claiming much credit for Mayweather’s rapid rise, but she concedes her skills may have helped a little.
“When we began working together, he was just starting to move the needle,” she recalled. “That Gatti fight was huge for him and from there his career really took off. It was perfect timing to help him build the publicity foundation, an image foundation, so as he was getting more popular and continuing to show his strength in the ring, he had the machine behind him to catapult his career to another level.”
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