(DEC 14) INDIANAPOLIS, IN -
When it’s your turn to act at the poker table – it’s the moment
for clarity, for wisdom, for experience and for logic to
surface. It’s mind over matter. For every move there’s a
counter. And for every action there’s a reaction. Poker takes us
on a journey that makes us run scenarios over and over in our
own minds – hoping that every decision, every move was the right
one. Will we ever know if we got our opponent to fold the best
hand? Maybe. Maybe not. But one thing’s for sure, they may never
know what we held either.
In this battle of a constant
negotiation for a pot, it’s like traveling through life and
determining your own path. Will you succumb to the pressures and
dictations of others, or will you turn the tables on them and
bring them into your world where you take charge of what
happens. “It’s not a maybe. It’s a certainty,” says Christina
Kwan, a poker player who is also a former U.S. National and
World Amateur Champion in boxing at 95-pounds. She’s petite but
fiercely determined. I watch her play a few hands of poker with
some friends at her Kwan International office at the Las Vegas
Motor Speedway and she doesn’t care who it is, she’s going for
the win.
It’s that determination that led Christina to become the first
boxing titlist to cash in a World Series of Poker event last
year. Christina continues to comment in between hands, “Who is
poker? Poker is anyone in any country, any culture, all ages.
That’s how we came up with Project All In. That’s what the
staged poker table inside the boxing ring is for.”
Outfitted with multiple cameras and microphones, Project All In
is a live streamed interactive broadcast that shows a non-cash
poker game where the worldwide audience can interact with the
players in real time. “If they think a player did a bad move,
they can say it!” exclaims Christina. “But likewise, the player
at the table has the opportunity to defend their moves.” She
laughs as she starts to show the charisma that is the staple of
her compelling personality. Project All In, however, is meant to
have significance even beyond the scope of the broadcast. It’s a
lifestyle brand – providing a metaphor that parallels
Christina’s commitment to all that she’s involved in: business,
boxing, poker and motorsports.
The boxing ring inside her office isn’t there for mere
decoration or even as just a stage for Project All In. After
leaving the sport for six years, she came back solely fixated on
winning a professional World Championship. So why the decision?
She certainly had built a successful business. She didn’t need
boxing to make a living.
A deeper reveal brings me to the rather hostile side of the
boxing business. “You see, back then, we relied on the
promoters. We relied on them to make or break our careers. Would
they give us a fight on their card? Would they promote us?” she
explains as her tone quickly changes to serious. “And don’t even
get Kaliesha started on how she’s been treated even as a current
world champion and I can relate to it – she’s right. However, I
can’t change the business. That’s why we’ve come together.
That’s why we’re taking this approach from an entirely new
angle.”
She is talking about Kaliesha West, the two-time World Champion
at 122-pounds who has openly pointed out the perils of the sport
on public platforms. It wasn’t just the respect the two have for
one another that brought them together; they share more passions
than just boxing. “She’s an amazing person. Together, we just
understand each other. She brings an enhanced dimension, a
skillset, to Kwan International and it’s an exciting future
endeavor,” Chistina forecasts.
While the two know the hard work and sacrifices they’ve endured
in and out of the ring, they equally share passions for poker
and motorsports, a big factor in collaborating on projects
outside of boxing. When you look at the scope of the Kwan
office, you are quickly reminded by the diversity in all that it
represents. Rather than seeing prominent boxing companies
displayed from walls and rafters, you see major automotive
influences – to the tune of Aeromotive Fuel Systems, a sponsor
of Christina’s 18-foot 1300-horsepower drag boat that she will
race in the televised Lucas Oil series; SEMA, where Christina is
currently serving her third elected term to the women’s board;
and Swisstrax, Race Ramps and TRE Racing. On the opposite end of
the spectrum, companies like LG electronics, Pictographics and
Deja Soleil Swimwear make Christina’s representation vastly
impressive.
She isn’t solely defined by boxing, but it is a defining
attribute of her. Most thought they knew her game plan when she
departed from the sport, but what many were about to find out
was the check-raise move she was about to show. Flipping the
script on promoters and those largely engrained in boxing’s
systematic approach to producing fight events, Christina has
solidified her position on a fight card that is solely promoted
by the automotive and motorsports industry – but that’s because
she’s opened those doors.
When you’ve had the chance to sit down with Christina and spend
some time listening to her – you realize that her weaving of
multiple industries together in a joint effort to cross-expose –
to cross-market – is an innovation of its time. She’s successful
and the question is really when the others will catch-up. Her
intellect continues to stir new waves – a force of nature that
no one in boxing has ever seen before. Joining forces with
Kaliesha, some say that these two may very well be the most
multi-dimensional boxers the sport has ever seen. Reaching new
levels and breaking through the glass walls, it is Christina’s
determination and willingness to put it all on the line that
makes every effort a committed one. She can sum it up in three
words, “I’m all in.”
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