Seeing fighters take part in commercial advertising either as a one off or as part of an endorsement agreement is becoming more common place, especially with champions such as Anderson Silva and George St Pierre getting involved with big name brands like Burger King and Gatorade.
But even lesser known fighters (as far as the general public is concerned) are getting in on the action. Roger Gracie is almost deified in the grappling world and while his surname carries a good amount of cache into the MMA world he's still far lesser known than he would be if he was in the UFC - the big brand of mixed martial arts.
Considering this it's interesting to see Relentless - a caffeinated energy drink from the Coca Cola company - spend the majority of this promotional video focusing on Gracie, his Brazilian Jiu Jitsu origins and his drive to be a fighter and athlete and only spend a few seconds at the end advertising their product.
Relentless seem to be focused on targeting the Extreme Sports and Alternative Music market in sponsorship, and based on their own branding of the Relentless name could easily be mistaken for an Affliction-esque clothing company.
But enough about that. The video has high production value, is well edited and has a cool sounding ambient-glitch backing track. You also get to see Gracie show off some cool Judo throws and trips as well as slick sweeps and submissions.
It makes you wonder if the big MMA brands like the UFC could take a cue from ads like this in better marketing their own talent? A short but highly produced promotional video for their fighters can capture audience interest a lot more than sitting through the repetitive shilling of the next UFC show Mike Goldberg often has to perform in-between fights.
Roger Gracie fights 'King Mo' Muhammed Lawal this Saturday at the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix in Cincinnati, Ohio.
But even lesser known fighters (as far as the general public is concerned) are getting in on the action. Roger Gracie is almost deified in the grappling world and while his surname carries a good amount of cache into the MMA world he's still far lesser known than he would be if he was in the UFC - the big brand of mixed martial arts.
Considering this it's interesting to see Relentless - a caffeinated energy drink from the Coca Cola company - spend the majority of this promotional video focusing on Gracie, his Brazilian Jiu Jitsu origins and his drive to be a fighter and athlete and only spend a few seconds at the end advertising their product.
Relentless seem to be focused on targeting the Extreme Sports and Alternative Music market in sponsorship, and based on their own branding of the Relentless name could easily be mistaken for an Affliction-esque clothing company.
But enough about that. The video has high production value, is well edited and has a cool sounding ambient-glitch backing track. You also get to see Gracie show off some cool Judo throws and trips as well as slick sweeps and submissions.
It makes you wonder if the big MMA brands like the UFC could take a cue from ads like this in better marketing their own talent? A short but highly produced promotional video for their fighters can capture audience interest a lot more than sitting through the repetitive shilling of the next UFC show Mike Goldberg often has to perform in-between fights.
Roger Gracie fights 'King Mo' Muhammed Lawal this Saturday at the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix in Cincinnati, Ohio.
