By Mike Coppinger

Notre Dame Graduate Mike Lee is a fresh face in the sport, but with one rare exception compared to other boxers, let alone top prospects -- he's on a national TV ad.

Lee (7-0, 4 KOs) appears on a Subway commercial that airs often, along with Philadelphia Phillies' Ryan Howard along with New York Giants Justin Tuck and Michael Strahan.

That Lee, only a professional of five fights, was able to obtain such a mainstream marketing opportunity is quite a feat, and the light heavyweight was surprised he earned the role.

"I fought on ESPN and we got a phone call shortly after that," said the 24-year-old Lee. The chief marketing office there went to Notre Dame and they had guys like (former Notre Dame defensive end) Justin Tuck too. And (former Notre Dame QB) Brady Quinn [before that]. They reached out to me and I happened to be in New York. We had a meeting with them and to be honest I left the meeting and thought 'I don't know if these guys really liked me'."

"And sure enough, a few hours later, they said 'we like you, we think you're on the up-and-up, we want to fly you out to LA and start you out. We can't guarantee you anything, but we want to see you how you do on camera'. So basically we shot a few commercials and they tested them. And I guess they tested through the roof. The rest is history. They put them on and they've had great ratings. It's kinda crazy."

The exposure for a young fighter like Lee has been innumerable.

"It's the biggest thing to date that I can possibly do," Lee realizes. "For any fighter, to be in that kind of national exposure, any time you can make money or promote yourself outside of the ring, and not get hit doing it, it's a smart move, I think you should do it.

"It's huge, I remember the first time it came out, I had to turn my phone off because it was blowing up. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Lee will be fighting his first six rounder on Dec. 3 at Madison Square Garden, where he receive even more exposure competing under the Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito 2 bill.

For a bright boxer like Lee with already so much publicity, Top Rank appears to have another budding star on its hands.