After a career laden with belts, cash and kudos, boxing great Floyd Mayweather Jr retired undefeated over 50 fights -- but his flawless record faces an unlikely challenge from an obscure Thai fighter known as the "dwarf giant".
At 5ft 2in and weighing just 47.6 kilograms, minimumweight Wanheng Menayothin is shorter, leaner and significantly less wealthy than Mayweather, who briefly emerged from retirement last year to fight MMA star Conor McGregor for a $100 million purse (Dh367 million).
If Wanheng triumphs on Wednesday afternoon he will equal Mayweather's feat of winning 50 successive fights.
His WBC minimumweight belt is on the line against Panamanian challenger Leroy Estrada.
The fight, to be held outside the town hall of second-tier Thai city Nakhon Ratchasima, has none of the glitz or pay-per-view pull of a Mayweather bout in Las Vegas.
But still Wanheng will enter boxing lore with victory - and, at 32 years of age, has time to go one better and match the 51 wins, one draw and no losses set by Mexican flyweight Ricardo Lopez.
It is not just the box office power that differentiates Mayweather from the Thai, who turned to the ring at the age of 12 as a path out of poverty.
While the prelude to Mayweather fights was defined by hype and trash-talking, Wanheng has adopted a more karmic approach.
"I'm not feeling pressured, you win and you lose, and that's the nature of sports," he said at his gym in Bangkok a few days before defending his title.
But he said he had trained hard with the aim of "equalling Floyd".
Nicknames also capture the difference between the pair.
In addition to "Money", the American fought under the moniker "Pretty Boy" and "The Best Ever", tags he still rolls out on a Twitter profile boasting more than eight million followers.
With Wanheng, it's more complicated.
Fighters in Thailand often compete under the label of their gym, which is where his second name Menayothin - the name of his Bangkok gym - comes from.
His legal name is Chayaphon Moonsri, while his most widely used nickname is the "dwarf giant" because of his small stature and powerful punches.
But the boxer also fights under the alias "Five-Star Grilled Chicken" as part of sponsorship deal with Thai food giant CP Chicken.
Should Wanheng win on Wednesday his name will enter the record books, but with an asterisk of sorts.
He has fought mostly low-profile Asian challengers on his home turf in Thailand.
His rivals have been a mixed bag - one last year had 44 losses, while another in 2014 had 24.
In December he tied Rocky Marciano's 49-0 tally with a win over Japanese contender Tatsuya Fukuhara.
Mayweather, meanwhile, had a much tougher ride defeating some of the sport's all-time greats, including Manny Pacquiao and Oscar De La Hoya. The welterweight has 27 KOs to Wanheng's 17.
"With respect to Wanheng he's never beaten anyone of note. In the west this fight will be nothing more than a trivial pursuit question," Anson Wainwright, a boxing correspondent for The Ring magazine, told AFP, adding that matching the record would nevertheless be a "good achievement."
Carlos Costa, a boxing reporter covering the fight, said the 23-year-old Estrada also poses a unique challenge to Wanheng, 32.
"He's younger and fresher," Costa said of Estrada. "He's hungry for glory, and that makes a boxer always dangerous."
And the Panamanian is in no mood to help Wanheng into the history books, saying "this is my opportunity to be a champion".
The Details
Kabir Singh
Produced by: Cinestaan Studios, T-Series
Directed by: Sandeep Reddy Vanga
Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Suresh Oberoi, Soham Majumdar, Arjun Pahwa
Rating: 2.5/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
