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Sudden Impact
BY JOSEPH J. SCHATZ Just a few years ago, Esther Phiri was a struggling single mother with a sixth-grade education selling vegetables on the street in Mutendere, an impoverished neighborhood of Lusaka, Zambia’s capital. This summer, she left Africa for the first time as a world boxing titleholder. After winning the Women’s International Boxing Federation (WIBF) super featherweight world title—her third title—a few months ago, Ms. Phiri left Zambia for a three-week European training tour designed to expose her to top-level international talent and, her managers hope, pave the way for a title fight in Europe or the U.S. “Exposure is very important, not only in Africa,” Ms. Phiri, 25, noted as she sat inside the Lusaka offices of her corporate sponsor, National Milling Corp. “Life has changed.” For over a century, boxing has been known as a long-shot avenue to success for athletic strivers from poor areas. But Ms. Phiri’s rise from the slums to stardom as Zambia’s first female boxing champion sounds extreme even by her sport’s standards. It is also a window into the challenges and opportunities of the sports business in Africa—and how Ms. Phiri and her corporate promoters have parlayed her skill in the ring into the highest-profile sports endorsement in the history of this peaceful but poor African country. SUDDEN CHAMPION One of eight children, Ms. Phiri grew up in a two-room house, and financial pressures forced her to leave school in the sixth grade after her father died. By the age of 16, she was pregnant. But through a local organization focused on HIV awareness and sports, Ms. Phiri began boxing and developed the punching technique that in 2003 brought her to the attention of Anthony Mwamba, a retired Zambian boxer who went to the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Now a trainer and promoter, Mr. Mwamba saw promise in her and began training her and started arranging fights. After a series of unimpressive first bouts, Ms. Phiri entered a fight with Ohio’s Kelli Cofer, the reigning WIBF Intercontinental Junior Lightweight titleholder, in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2006. Ms. Phiri shocked the spectators by winning an eight-round decision. Suddenly she was a champion. But that posed a problem—her team had to come up with the money to stage a title defense. Promoting athletics—much less women’s boxing—is difficult in Zambia, which has seen its economic fortunes fluctuate with the price of copper, its major export. Despite recent economic growth, neither Zambian corporations nor the government has much money available for sports. Mr. Mwamba approached Peter Cottan, general manager of National Milling, a former government-owned company. Now a subsidiary of U.S.-based Seaboard, the company produces the cornmeal that Zambians use to make their national staple. Looking to improve his company’s image, Mr. Cottan decided National Milling would pay for the fight, about $18,000. Then, he says, “I held my breath for the whole of the eight rounds. It was a fantastic, exciting experience.” BRAND ICON Ms. Phiri beat her Bulgarian challenger, and the next day Mr. Cottan brought Ms. Phiri and Mr. Mwamba into his office and signed her up to a binding and exclusive two-year endorsement deal as the company’s “brand icon.” That means Ms. Phiri wears National Milling gear, appears on billboards across Zambia touting the “Mealie Meal of Champions” and goes on road shows demonstrating products. In return, the company is responsible for sponsoring all of her fights, managing the events, feeding and clothing Ms. Phiri and her team and funding her education. Purse money is negotiated fight by fight; and the company pays her a monthly retainer of $3,000, and also pays Mr. Mwamba. The company’s total commitment is about $100,000, according to Mr. Cottan. That may represent a huge sum in Zambia, but it’s tiny compared to what woman boxers in other parts of the world can command. American Laila Ali counts Adidas among her sponsors, pulling in millions of sponsorship dollars a year, and ranks among the world’s top female athletes. Still, Ms. Phiri has become a household name in Zambia, and her fights draw government ministers and chanting children. Once teased by male boxers, Ms. Phiri now spars with them and says she hopes to be a role model for girls in a country where many women face cultural hurdles in everything from education to property rights—and where she is now held up by many as a sign of women’s progress. For her corporate sponsors and promoters, Ms. Phiri’s success isn’t simply a heartwarming rags-to-riches story—she’s making them money. Says Mr. Cottan: “Now, National Milling is on the tip of everyone’s tongue.” PHOTO: LANDOV (ESTHER PHIRI)
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