Across America, Starting with the Boxing Champion

Chapter 8 Career Planning

 “Link, you’re only twenty years old? That’s surprising.”

In the office, coach West Corian looked at the information card he had just filled out and saw that he was born in February 1989. He looked at him with some surprise.

 “Isn’t it like that?”

Link held a citrus-flavored lollipop in his mouth, raised his handsome eyebrows and smiled.

“Haha, my personality is different. Young boxers are more flamboyant on stage and show their emotions, but you are quiet and calm from beginning to end on stage. I thought you were older.”

 Coach West praised.

Link smiled lightly. He was not calm. He just felt that defeating a few ordinary people was not something worth boasting about. There was no need to get too excited.

If he defeated the current WBA-WBC-IBF-WBO boxing champion and realized his dream in his previous life, he would also roar with excitement.

“West, I have been jailed twice, will it affect my amateur game?”

Link pointed to the criminal record on the information sheet. There were two items on it. The previous one was sentenced to three months in prison for theft and affray and 200 hours of community service.

 This is a crime committed by the predecessor, and now he needs to take the blame.

 West looked at it and was a little surprised. He thought he was a good boy, but he didn't expect that he had a criminal record. He could only sigh, people can't just look at their appearance.

“It will not affect amateur competitions, but if you achieve good results in boxing in the future, these records will also be exposed by the media, adding some black material to you.”

“It doesn’t matter if the material is black, black and red are also red.”

Link didn't care about what would happen after becoming famous. He continued, "West, I plan to play amateur competition for half a year and enter the professional boxing ring next year. What do you think?"

 “Only play amateur competition for half a year?”

West was stunned and said: "Link, are you too hasty? Although amateur competition is not as difficult as professional boxing, there are also some more powerful characters. Playing amateur competition is also a kind of exercise for you, just like Holyfield, he played 160 amateur games, his skills were well honed, and he only became so outstanding after playing professional games.”

 “West, I understand what you mean, but I am confident in my own strength.”

Seeing that West wanted to persuade him, Link stretched out his palm, interrupted him, and said: "West, I have a proposal, for half a year. Within half a year, I will participate in as many amateur competitions as possible. If I lose, , just switch to professional boxing later, otherwise just listen to me and enter professional boxing in half a year.”

 West Korian thought for a moment and decided that this arrangement would work.

If Link can win consecutively within half a year, it means that he is strong enough to cope with professional competitions, and it would be a waste to stay in the amateur circle.

But he doesn’t think Link can remain undefeated for half a year. When Link enters the boxing world, he will know how many boxing masters there are.

"Okay, I will arrange for you to participate in amateur competitions as soon as possible. During this time, you should seize the time to train."

 Link nodded his chin.

 Boxing is a sport that is divided into amateur competitions and professional competitions.

 Amateur competitions include Olympic boxing matches, Intercontinental Games boxing matches, World Championship boxing matches, boxing Golden Gloves matches, etc.

 Professional competitions mainly refer to boxing competitions initiated by the International Professional Boxing Organization and supervised and managed by the professional boxing organization.

 At present, the four most valuable boxing organizations in the boxing world are the World Boxing Association (WBA), the World Boxing Council (WBC), the International Boxing Federation (IBF), and the World Boxing Organization (WBO).

There are also many small professional boxing organizations such as IBO, WBF, IBA, NBA, etc.

Each professional boxing organization has independent rules, regulations, and competition formats.

 Amateur competitions are supervised and managed by the organizers of sports meets, while professional sports meets are supervised and managed by professional boxing organizations.

 Another more obvious difference between the two is the closeness with business.

 Amateur competitions are not highly commercialized, and boxers compete mainly for honors.

Professional boxing is highly commercialized. The whole process is indispensable for publicity and promotion before the game, collecting tickets during the game, charging subscription fees for PPV, and post-game publicity and hype. The whole process is indispensable for commercial operations.

 The fight between boxers is mainly for prize money, and honor is secondary. Just like boxing champion Floyd Mayweather said to his old rival De La Hoya: ‘If you want to fight me, you can! But if you don’t have 100 million US dollars, then please don’t call me and harass me. ’

Boxing promotion companies have taken money to the extreme. Without money, they can't even think of competing with their own boxers. This method of operation is also one of the reasons for the lack of success in the American boxing world in recent years.

Link wants to switch to professional boxing as soon as possible. Before the current North American boxing scene is completely declining, he can earn more US dollars. With US dollars, it will be easier to challenge other boxing champions.

  —

 “Mario, are you okay?”

In the boxing ring, Link put on his boxing gloves and practiced boxing. When he proposed to do confrontation training, Mario took the initiative to ask him to be his sparring partner.

Link said that his fists were relatively heavy and asked him to wear a boxing helmet to defend himself and prevent injuries. Mario said that it was not necessary, he could handle it completely, and asked Link to attack with all his strength.

 But he only persisted for a while, and Mario was beaten up and down.

 “I’m fine, I can do it.”

 Mario shook his head and struggled to get up from the ground. His knees weakened and he almost fell down again.

“Mario, put on protective gear. If you don’t want to, just ask Reggie to train with Link.”

 Coach West shouted.

Mario snorted coldly and reluctantly put on a highly elastic sponge headgear and sponge armor to protect his head and body. After Mario put on the protective gear, his originally fat body became stronger.

 “Haha, Link, you hit me, now I can definitely catch your fist.”

 Mario knocked his hood with his fist and smiled.

Link smiled lightly, raised his fists, and continued to attack Mario. With the protection of the sponge hood, Mario's ability to resist blows has been greatly improved, and he will no longer be easily knocked down.

 Bang, bang, bang!

Link waved his fists wantonly, straight punches, uppercuts, jabs, swing punches, throw punches, five basic punches, and combinations of five punches, and greeted Mario one after another. It was very enjoyable to play.

 After practicing for more than an hour, Link's strong back was dripping with sweat, and Mario was lying straight on the ground, breathing heavily.

“Link, are you a beast? Why are you so strong?”

 Mario said weakly.

When he competed with Link before, he thought that Link was only that strong. After practicing with Link for more than an hour, he realized how terrifying Link was. His fists were like hammers, fast and hard, even with a guard. The tool will also be beaten back again and again.

This guy is a beast.

 “I’m just naturally strong.”

 “You rest first, I’ll go practice with the rubber target.”

Link handed Mario a bottle of water and walked off the ring.

 The other boxers saw Mario wearing protective gear and being beaten up and down by Link, and they couldn't help but look at him with admiration.

 Mario weighs 208 pounds and is a heavyweight boxer, while Link weighs 168 pounds and is a super middleweight and light heavyweight. He can beat Mario across levels. He is too powerful.

Coach West laughed with joy when he saw Link defeating Mario.

The power Link showed just now was greater and faster than he imagined. The combination of punches he performed was also very skillful. He was like an old boxer who had practiced boxing for many years. His mentality and boxing consciousness were also Extremely sophisticated.

 West felt like he had struck a gold mine, a huge gold mine.

“West, have you seen my playing style? Do you have any suggestions for improvement?”

Link wiped the sweat from his neck and chest muscles with a towel.

 West pondered for a moment,

“Link, your combo punch is very good, but there are some small problems that you have not noticed.”

 “What’s the problem, West, just ask.”

“You make small movements like raising your knees, swinging your elbows, and stepping up your feet during competitions. Have you ever practiced free fighting before?”

West asked.

 Link nodded his chin.

This is not a habitual movement brought about by practicing free fighting, but a problem developed from fighting in the underground boxing ring for too long.

Matches in underground boxing venues pay more attention to visual effects and are relatively relaxed in terms of supervision. As long as there are no major fouls, it is not considered a violation.

This kind of indulgence has led to boxers making constant small moves and very dirty fighting styles. Link has been fighting in underground boxing rings for nearly ten years and has also developed some bad habits.

But he is also trying to exercise restraint.

“West, I used to fight more in the street and didn’t pay much attention to the rules. I will pay attention to it in the future.”

 “Okay, you continue to practice.”

Link felt that he still had some strength left in his body, so he continued to practice boxing on the human rubber target.

The human-shaped rubber target is harder than the human body, and it only wears bandages to protect the hands. It is very laborious to hit, but the rubber target is relatively strong, so there is no need to worry about being damaged, and it is very enjoyable to practice.

When Link was practicing boxing, West and his boxing apprentices stood watching him from a distance. They saw him furiously hitting the rubber target, banging and banging, making the target shake. They couldn't help but marvel. .

I heard that when Tyson was practicing boxing, he often knocked out his sparring partners and broke the boxing targets. Link was similar. Could Link become as powerful a boxer as Tyson?

Mario's eyes twitched when he saw it. It was so cruel. If Link had been beaten like this on stage just now, he would have been beaten to the ground long ago.

 “Everyone, stop looking and go train.”

West waved his hand and drove away several boxers and boxing apprentices.

 “He’s not very strong either, so how could he be so powerful?”

 Mario said enviously.

 “This is talent, you can’t envy it.”

 West is also very envious. If he had had Link's talent back then, he would not have been boxing for ten years without even winning a gold belt.

“Mario, you have also seen Link’s strength. In terms of strength and speed, he is also among the best in professional boxing. If you can train with him for three years, it will not be difficult to win the intercontinental boxing title in the future.”

West said.

 Mario scratched the flesh on his face and said, "West, have you ever thought about another possibility? I have been training with him for three years, and I might be beaten to death by him?"

"It's possible, so I leave the choice to you whether you want to be his sparring partner or not."

 West patted Mario on the shoulder and contacted Link to go to the game.

Mario looked at Link's back and clenched his fists tightly. He was annoyed that he was too weak and could not withstand Link's attack, so he asked him to use the rubber man. This was a dereliction of duty as a sparring partner.

“Link, I will continue to be your sparring partner tomorrow.”

 Mario shouted with all his strength.

 “I heard it, don’t be so loud!”

Merry Christmas! Please collect it!

 (End of this chapter)