Across America, Starting with the Boxing Champion

Chapter 467 Preparing for the Boxing Match

 Bang bang bang!

With the arrival of October, the WBA-WBC light heavyweight championship PK match is about to begin.

At present, the boxing match promotion team has gone to Seoul to carry out pre-match promotion work. After a few days of rest, Link also returned to training at Muscle Beach Club.

In the private training ground, Link was wearing a sports T-shirt, and his fists were wrapped in white hand bandages as he kept hitting the sandbags. His strong muscles sometimes relaxed and contracted under the T-shirt.

 As he moved, his muscle tissue gradually swelled, and the oil and sweat discharged from his body soaked his shirt.

While he was training, Morales wandered around his training area and seemed to have something to say.

 It's dangling around and looks a bit unsightly.

 “Mario, what’s wrong with you?”

Link stopped, picked up a towel and wiped the sweat from his body.

“Link, you know I didn’t come to the training ground some time ago. Guess where I went?”

Morales bared his white teeth, winked and smiled.

 “Have you gone to pick up girls?”

"Of course not. I have a stable relationship with Debbie. How could I hook up with other women? I'm not that kind of scumbag. Well, I went to Hopkins' training ground. De La Hoya asked me to go and told him I can’t turn it down, guess what Hoya asked me to do?”

 “Let you train with Hopkins?”

“That’s right, that’s it. You want me to imitate your fighting style, your punching movements, commonly used combination punches, steps, and up and down tactics, etc., I have to imitate them.

 I said it can’t be done. No one can imitate your speed and punching weight. They asked me to show it as much as possible.

De La Hoya also found three boxers with a similar style to you to serve as sparring partners for Hopkins. We trained with Hopkins for half a month, watching your game videos while training, as if we were doing Research, very, very carefully.

Originally, De La Hoya didn't let me tell you. After thinking about it, it's better to tell you. I feel that De La Hoya is serious this time. He really wants Hopkins to beat you. You'd better be careful. "

Morales said.

Link nodded. Studying the opponent's fighting style and weaknesses before the game is also one of the basic tasks of a boxer.

From the beginning of amateur competitions, he would study the opponent's information with members of the coaching staff before each game to find the fastest way to defeat the opponent. This is also one of the roles of the coaching staff.

Before his last match with Clinton Woods, he studied his opponent’s playing style and weaknesses, and he was also studying Hopkins during this time.

Now I heard that Hopkins is also studying him and has found Morales and others for special training. He is not surprised and doesn't think there is any problem.

There were rumors before that Hopkins went to a Cuban boxing training camp to further his training in order to deal with him.

Link only felt that both De La Hoya and Hopkins were too nervous, and this mentality was wrong.

At the same time, from the perspective of publicity and promotion, this kind of rumor is also adding momentum to Hopkins, trying to achieve a certain balance with him in terms of "strength", and it can also arouse the curiosity of boxing fans: What does Hopkins do by doing this? Useless? Who wins and who loses in the competition between the two?

 With curiosity, you will gain attention and earn more PPV income.

In fact, Link doesn’t mind more rumors in the media, including the rumored ‘iron-blooded play’, exchanging injuries for injuries, using a beauty trap against him, etc.

  In fact, it is also one of the ways to promote boxing matches. It is a ‘gimmick’ released by promotion companies and gambling companies to create reportable materials for the media, increase the topicality of boxing matches, and provide some fresh topics for boxing fans to talk about.

 In short, hype.

Link didn’t know whether De La Hoya was creating a topic by asking Morales to be Hopkins’ sparring partner, or if he really wanted to defeat himself in this way.

No matter how he got there, he didn't care. As long as he was strong enough, he didn't have to worry about other people's plots.

 “Mario, what are you doing here without training?”

The two were chatting when Hoya walked in with a frown and glared at Morales.

"I told Link about training with Hopkins. I think it is useless for you to do that. Hopkins is too old. Even if he is twenty years younger, he will not be Link's opponent. If I If you are the one, you will let Hopkins give up the gold belt and let Link dominate the light heavyweight. Anyway, he will be promoted to cruiserweight and heavyweight in two years, and he will not hold on to several gold belts. You guys are like this There’s no point in holding on.”

Morales said.

 “Stop talking nonsense, get out, don’t disturb Link’s training here.”

Hoya pointed to the door with a dark face.

Morales shrugged and walked away. De La Hoya shook his head and said to Link: "What Mario said makes sense. You are so strong, Bernard is no match at all. I also persuaded Bernard to give up the gold belt, but he was unwilling and insisted on following You are overestimating your abilities in this fight, Link. I would like to congratulate you in advance on winning the match and becoming the new overlord of the light heavyweight division.”

Link glanced at him, and as long as Hopkins was not a boxer under Golden Boy Promotions, he might believe De La Hoya's words.

 Now Golden Boy Promotions has also invested a lot of publicity funds in this game.

 For a boxer, the game is a competition.

 For both agencies, it is a capital bet. If Hopkins wins, Golden Boy Promotions will not only receive 70% of the income from this match, but its influence in the boxing world will also rise to a higher level.

De La Hoya gradually became a businessman after retiring from boxing, paying more attention to profits.

Of course you can’t believe everything he said.

“De La Hoya, has the prize money been confirmed? I haven’t heard from Franco yet?”

Link didn't want to talk nonsense and turned to ask about the business.

"Yes, the prize is 80 million US dollars. You and Bernard will split it 30/70, and the winner will get 70%. Of course, you are a world-class star, and you can also get a share of PPV revenue and ticket revenue in some regions. As well as peripheral income, Link, if you win this game, the prize will probably exceed 100 million US dollars.”

When talking about the bonus at first, De La Hoya remained calm, but then he did some calculations and found that if Link successfully wins the game, he will not only become the boxing champion of the two major light heavyweight organizations, but also earn more than 100 million US dollars. .

too exaggerated.

Earning $100 million per game is more than he earned at the peak of his career, and Link is only 22 years old.

Hoya bit his back teeth and felt fiercely jealous.

 “One hundred million dollars? Not bad.”

Link nodded.

One hundred million US dollars sounds like a lot, but it is much lower than the prize money for the fight of the century between Mayweather and Pacquiao. One of his goals is to have the opportunity to fight in a game with a total revenue of more than 1 billion US dollars in the future and create a future. A new record beyond human reach.

 “Just nice?”

Hoya frowned, dissatisfied with his flat tone.

“Yes, taking into account inflation, the current US$100 million is equivalent to the level of US$30 to 40 million in the 1990s. This is a decline. I hope the prize money for the next game can reach 200 million.”

 “Two hundred million?”

De La Hoya doesn’t think Link can do it. The current record for the highest prize money in a competition was set by Link in Las Vegas last year. He received 72 million in a single game, which shocked the boxing world.

Link is expected to get 100 million in this game. This is a new historical record and a record that is difficult to copy. If you want to break this record, the bonus for a single game will be 200 million US dollars, unless the inflation rate is based on the current Quadruple.

 But considering that Link has been setting new records since his debut.

 It is easy to get slapped in the face if you refute now.

Hoya laughed, "Come on Link, maybe you are creating a miracle."

"I will."

Link nodded, stood in front of the sandbag again, pumped his fist and continued practicing.

Hoya felt helpless when he saw his expression, and he didn't understand what motivated Link to work so hard every day.

After many boxers in the boxing world become famous and make money, they will inevitably slack off, relax in training, and indulge in extravagance, including Tyson, Roy Jones Jr., Mayweather, etc., including himself.

Link is now worth several billion, and is the number one player in the boxing world in strength, popularity, and income. He is more successful than anyone else.

Even so, Link can still persist in training without slacking off.

This kind of perseverance and self-control is too abnormal.

 ‘If I had had such perseverance back then’

Hoya sighed secretly and left the training ground sadly, leaving Link to train alone.

 (End of this chapter)