Kobe Bryant has always taken a hands-on approach to his business interests, and he’s become even more active in the business world following his retirement from the Los Angeles Lakers a season ago.
This has proven especially when it comes to his signature Sports Drink, Body Armor, which Bryant has been actively promoting to multiple media outlets over the past several months while also touring the globe.
All the Body Armor talk paid off again Thursday, when Bryant and the UFC announced that Body Armor would be the official sports drink of the fighting organization, via Dan Gelston of the Associated Press:
Kobe Bryant is set to enter the UFC octagon — at least, with a sports drink.
The retired Los Angeles Lakers great is an investor with BodyArmor, the first official sports drink of UFC, and hit New York on Thursday to promote the partnership.
Body Armor’s website describes it as “the sports drink for today’s athlete, providing Superior Hydration by combining electrolytes, natural flavors and natural sweeteners” and in addition to Bryant (and now the UFC) is endorsed by athletes like Klay Thompson, Kristaps Porzingis and James Harden.
Getting into a crowded sports drink field dominated by Gatorade might not have seemed like a natural or expected move, but it really shouldn’t be a surprise that Bryant’s competitiveness didn’t allow him to take an easy path to business success. Instead, just like he did on the mid-2000’s Lakers teams, he’s going to go out and try and beat some juggernauts all by himself.
Now that Bryant’s career is over and there is no basketball left to watch him play, it will be fun to see how much ground he can make up on more established sports drinks through deals like this one with the UFC. At this point, it seems dumb to bet against him.
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