Metta World Peace: An NBA champion and the founder of PG Sports join forces to co-manage "The Gift" Booker

In the high-stakes theater of professional boxing, the team outside the ring is often just as vital as the fighter standing under the bright lights. On November 20, 2025, a partnership emerged that feels less like a standard corporate merger and more like the plot of an inspirational film. It blends the glitz of Hollywood celebrity, the calculated risk of Silicon Valley venture capital, and the gritty resilience of the East Coast boxing circuit. Metta World Peace, the NBA champion and mental health advocate, has officially joined forces with Paul Guarino, the founder of PG Sports, to co-manage super welterweight contender Chordale "The Gift" Booker.

This collaboration is not merely a transaction; it is a convergence of three distinct life stories that are all defined by the same theme of redemption. At the center of this alliance sits Chordale Booker, a 34-year-old southpaw from Stamford, Connecticut, whose career has been a rollercoaster of brilliant highs and agonizing lows. Booker is a former elite amateur and Olympic Trials participant who has spent years chasing professional glory. His journey hit a devastating roadblock in March 2025 when he fought for the WBC and WBO world titles against the towering Sebastian Fundora in Las Vegas. That night ended in a fourth-round stoppage, a defeat that could have easily signaled the end for a lesser athlete. Yet Booker returned to the ring just months later in August, delivering a definitive knockout victory over veteran Patrick Allotey at the Royale Nightclub in Boston to prove he was far from finished.

To guide Booker back to a world title shot in 2026, he needed a management team that understood resilience intimately. Enter Paul Guarino. The founder of PG Sports is a unique figure in the landscape of sports management. Diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) and using a wheelchair since his youth, Guarino built his agency from a college dorm room with nothing but determination and a laptop. His philosophy is encapsulated in his slogan, "My Life is My Card," and his track record speaks for itself. Guarino specializes in what the industry calls "distressed assets," or fighters who have been overlooked or written off by the major power brokers. He previously took middleweight Ian Green from a place of suicidal depression and career obscurity to a top-3 world ranking, proving he possesses the tactical brilliance to navigate the shark-infested waters of boxing politics.

Adding the rocket fuel to Guarino’s operational ground game is Metta World Peace. The former NBA defensive icon has transitioned seamlessly into the world of high finance and mental health advocacy. Through his firm, Artest Management Group, he has moved beyond simple athlete representation to become a player in the venture capital space. His recent launch of Tru Skye Ventures, a fund targeting $100 million to back early-stage startups in wellness and tech, brings a level of financial sophistication rarely seen in boxing. World Peace views Booker not just as a boxer, but as a brand capable of transcending the sport.

The strategy for this new triumvirate is to move Booker back into contention while simultaneously building his future outside the ring. They are discarding the predatory promoter-first model in favor of a holistic approach where the athlete is treated as a venture capital asset to be developed and protected. This means leveraging Metta World Peace’s corporate network to secure sponsorships in the health and wellness sectors that traditional boxing managers simply cannot access. It also means utilizing his "Artest University" platform to position Booker as an ambassador for mental resilience, allowing him to share his powerful story of overcoming legal troubles and career defeats with a global audience.

For the boxing industry, this deal signals a fascinating shift. It combines Guarino’s ability to strategically maneuver fighters through the rankings with World Peace’s global influence and advocacy work. As Booker prepares for a massive campaign in 2026, he does so with a record of approximately 24 wins and 2 losses, but more importantly, he fights with a team that views his personal story of perseverance as his greatest asset. The unlikely friendship between a basketball legend, a wheelchair-bound visionary, and a redeemed fighter has evolved into a formidable enterprise, and the entire sports world will be watching to see if "The Gift" can finally be unwrapped on the world stage.