Across America, Starting with the Boxing Champion

Chapter 11 Golden Gloves Championship

　　Bang bang!

 In the boxing ring, Link and Mario continue to train.

With Mario's cooperation, he kept changing his attack methods, including jabs, straight punches, left swing punches, uppercuts, and downward throws.

  He used to be small and was best at jabs. The jab attacks were fast and unexpected. They were not as fast and powerful as straight punches and swing punches. However, by quickly hitting effective parts of the opponent's body, he could win by points.

 Now that he has gained height and weight, his strength has also increased, his arms are much longer than before, and his offensive methods also need to be adjusted.

While ensuring that the jab attack is still sharp, he is also consciously intensifying training on straight punches, swing punches, uppercuts, and throw punches.

In combination punches, you should also use more straight punches and swing punches with greater damage, so that you can win with one punch at critical moments.

 After practicing for more than an hour, both of them were sweating.

The weather in Miami is relatively humid, so indoors need to be ventilated to feel refreshed.

The ventilation facilities in the boxing gym are complete, but the amount of exercise is too much. The clothes get wet and dry, and dry and wet again, and a layer of sweat alkali condenses on the T-shirt.

 After a short rest, he began to work as a sparring partner for Mario.

 Mario mainly attacks, he mainly defends.

 For a boxer, offense and defense are equally important. Boxers who do well on both offense and defense will survive longer in the professional boxing ring.

 In the past thirty years, the boxer who has done the best on the offensive end is undoubtedly Tyson.

 Tyson has a strong offensive ability, always moving forward and never retreating. His boxing moves are clean, fierce, wild, and highly entertaining. He is also considered to be the most aggressive boxer in the history of world professional boxing.

The one who did a good job on the defensive end was Tyson’s old rival Evander Holyfield.

Although Holyfield is also a power boxer, his defensive skills are also extremely superb.

 In the two WBA gold belt defense matches in 1996 and 1997, Holyfield used strong defensive counterattack tactics to defeat Tyson twice in a row, forcing Tyson to bite his ear.

Link is a power boxer, but he is not sure whether he can cope with those professional boxers with strength alone after moving to the professional boxing world.

To be on the safe side, he plans to do both offense and defense well, building himself into a hexagonal warrior with no shortcomings.

"Hey! Link, Mario, stop practicing now, Coach West has brought back a good thing."

While the two were training, Reggie, a boxer from the same gym, ran over excitedly and shouted.

"what?"

Link and Mario stopped and jumped off the ring.

The three of them came to the training area together. West, manager Robinson and the apprentices were all here. Everyone was watching around a rectangular machine more than two meters high.

 “Wow! It’s a punching weight testing machine!”

Mario roared exaggeratedly, pushed away the crowd, rushed excitedly to the test machine, fumbled it up and down, and looked back at Coach West with a strange look on his face.

“West, I’ve been persuading you to buy one for a long time, but you haven’t bought one after I’ve persuaded you dozens of times. Why are you buying one now? Wait, is it because of Link?”

Mario sat down on the ground and said in a resentful tone, "West, I persuaded you dozens of times and you didn't buy it. The day after Link came, you moved the machine to the boxing gym. You treat me differently." Your attitude is too obvious. This is discrimination, blatant discrimination, do you understand?”

West glared at him with a dark face and said, "I bought it a long time ago, but it was just delivered today."

"Do you think I will believe it? If you don't deliver it sooner or later, it will be delivered to your door as soon as Link comes. Doesn't the machine manufacturer also know that there is a genius in our boxing gym and he is in urgent need of training with this machine?"

 Mario teased angrily.

Manager Robinson said with a smile: "Mario, it's true. The boxing strength testing machine manufacturer is in Nevada. If you bought it yesterday, you will definitely not be able to deliver it today."

 “Hey, it seems like this.”

 Mario and others accepted this explanation and felt much better.

 West and Robinson looked at each other and smiled tacitly.

This machine was bought a long time ago, but the boxing gym was in a downturn, and they were too lazy to put it out for Mario and the others to have a good fight, but it was different when Link came.

Link is a boxer with great potential. As long as it can help Link in training, they don't mind investing more.

 “Get out of the way, let me test how heavy my punch is.”

Mario pushed aside a few apprentices who were watching the show, held a fist as big as a sandbag, roared angrily, and hit the test target of the test machine hard.

　　Bang!

 The test target was retracted, and the numbers on the screen began to jump, quickly scrolling from one hundred pounds to seven hundred pounds, and finally staying at the integer value of 780 pounds.

“780 pounds? Haha, Link, come and test it too.”

 Mario greeted.

Link waved his hand and asked Reggie and the other four to test it first. He wanted to see if the test machine was accurate.

Four boxers from Reggie lined up to take the test. Except for Reggie, who weighed 620 pounds, the other three boxers all scored over 500 pounds.

 "Link, it's your turn, hurry up and fight."

 Mario urged.

Link put down his notebook, stood in front of the test machine, clenched his right fist, and hit the target hard. The values ​​on the screen were flipping rapidly, and everyone stared at the screen with wide eyes.

 Seeing the data break through 1,000 pounds, everyone screamed in surprise. In the end, Link's punch weight stabilized at 1,430 pounds.

“Wow, 1,430 pounds. I heard that Tyson could only hit 1,800 pounds at his peak, and Holyfield was 1,600 pounds. Link is about to catch up with them.”

 Mario exclaimed.

“No, no, no, Link is a middleweight, and Tyson and the others are heavyweights. A middleweight’s boxing weight is about to catch up with the heavyweight champion. It’s amazing.”

Reggie looked at Link with admiration.

 The other boxers and apprentices all looked at Link with admiration, feeling as if the boxing champion was around him.

Link smiled lightly. The punching strength test machine can only estimate the value of the boxer's punch at the moment of punching. It is an estimate, not the actual 1,400 pounds.

In addition, in a boxing match, the opponent is a living person who can move, dodge and block, and is not like a boxing target waiting for others to attack.

  If you want to hit your opponent with a 1,400-pound fist, you need a certain amount of skill. Most of the KOs (knockouts) that occur in the boxing ring are caused by failure to guard against the opponent's heavy punches and being hit directly on the head, resulting in fainting.

This is why the boxing world attaches great importance to KO probability. The more times a boxer KOs his opponents, it means he has great strength and good skills.

Although the data measured by this machine is not very accurate, it is a good measurement tool.

His strength slowly increases during training. With this machine, he can more accurately understand his own growth and formulate corresponding training plans.

“West, I’m going to test it a few more times to see what the average is.”

Link said.

"good."

 West took a notebook and started taking test notes.

 Link hit 10 consecutive punches on the boxing weight testing machine within three minutes. The best result of his right fist was the third time at 1,480 pounds, the worst result was the ninth time at 1,130 pounds, and the average was 1,350 pounds.

The best result of the left hand is 1310 pounds, the worst result is 880 pounds, and the average is 1020 pounds, which is quite different from the right hand.

  In other words, in the boxing ring, even if he punches ten times in a row, his right fist can weigh more than 1,100 pounds and his left fist can weigh more than 1,000 pounds.

If one of these ten punches hits the opponent's head, the opponent will be KO.

With the speed and skill shown by Link, the probability of missing all ten punches is too small, and the probability of him KOing his opponent in future matches will be extremely high.

Link took the notebook and looked at it. He memorized a few main data and measured it once a month in the future to see how much progress he had made.

“Link, I want to take a test too, please help me remember it.”

 Mario said noisily.

"let's start."

Mario took a deep breath and roared, bang bang bang.

 He also hit the test machine 10 times in a row.

　It was earth-shattering when I hit it, but the measured data was not ideal.

The best result is 810 pounds, the worst result is 420 pounds, and the average is less than 600. This data is not bad in amateur competitions, and the appearance fee in professional competitions will never exceed 1,000.

 “Why is there such a big difference?”

Mario looked at Link jealously, the average number was less than half of Link's, equivalent to the two of him combined equal to Link.

 “I am born with great strength, you don’t need to be too envious.”

Link said with a smile.

 Mario sounded even more envious. Innate means that you can't practice it even if you want to. Just like people say to monkeys that they are born smart, Link, a bastard, can also hit people too hard.

"Don't be envious. If you train more, you will be able to catch up with Link one day."

Coach West said to several people, "You continue to test, and remember to close it after the test. Link, let's go to the office to chat."

"good!"

Link nodded and followed Coach West to the office.

Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of West's office, you can see the Miami Zoo and Botanical Garden opposite, which is a nice environment.

 “Link, look at this.”

 Coach West handed over a piece of information.

　　is the entry application form for the American Golden Gloves Championship.

 The Golden Gloves Championship is the highest-level amateur boxing tournament in the United States. It is also known as the three major amateur boxing events along with the National Amateur Boxing Championship and the National Olympic Boxing Trials.

 The importance of the Golden Gloves Championship is somewhat stronger than the latter two.

 Famous boxing champions including Ali, Tyson, Joe Louis, and George Foreman all turned to professional boxing after achieving excellent results in the Golden Gloves Championship.

 The Golden Gloves Championship is also considered the only way for American young boxers to enter the professional boxing world.

 This is a good platform.

“Link, this year’s Golden Gloves Championship starts in early June, and there are still ten days left. If you want to become famous early, this is a good opportunity.”

West said.

Link nodded his chin, took out a pen, and began to fill in the registration materials.

 Golden Gloves Championship participants must be American citizens, aged 18-39, and non-professional boxers.

 The schedule has four levels.

 In the first level of local area, all registered players will compete in their own city first, and the top three in this city will participate in the state championship.

 The State Championship is the second level.

The third level is the division competition, the Eastern Division, the Southeast Division, the Northwest Division, and the Central Division. The top four in the four divisions qualify to participate in the National Golden Gloves Championship.

 The first three levels are knockout rounds.

The fourth level is the final, where boxers from the four divisions compete to determine the top three, with the winner receiving the Golden Gloves trophy.

 The competition time is from June 3rd to June 12th.

 The Finals will be held at the American Airlines Arena in Miami.

Link does not need to leave Miami to compete.

This is good news.

 (End of this chapter)