Conquer America, Start with a Boxing Champion

After sending Morales and his men away, Link went to the lounge to visit Mario who had been knocked unconscious.

But this guy had a sour face and looked like he had suffered a great injustice.

Link ignored him and then found West, asking him to recruit one or two more sparring partners, who should have good physical fitness, be able to withstand blows, and have better skills.

Generally speaking, sparring partners, like coaches, play a big role in the growth of boxers.

If you have a powerful sparring partner, the two of you will grow faster if you compete with each other every day. For example, John Ruiz, Oliver McCall, Larry Holmes, Lennox Lewis, etc., have all served as sparring partners for others, and later entered the professional boxing world and became world boxing champions.

This is a process of mutual achievement.

Mario has good physical fitness and good strength, but this guy is a bit stupid and grows slowly. He can't keep up with Link's growth rate and can't meet Link's needs.

If you change to a more powerful sparring partner, the training effect will be better.

West nodded and agreed. Link is now a star boxer with good development prospects. If he wants to find a sparring partner, he should notify the circle and many people will come to recommend themselves.

——

"Hi~Link!"

After training, Link returned to the shop. Under the awning, a middle-aged man in a blue beach shirt and brown shorts stood up from the chair, took off his sunglasses, and waved at him with a smile.

Link stopped the car and looked at the other person. He was a little surprised that this person was Franco Duva, whom he had not seen for a long time.

Compared to the well-dressed and gentle man in the past, he was dressed casually at this time, with his shirt open on his chest, revealing a piece of chest hair, wearing leather sandals on his feet, and his hair was no longer so split, but had been blown apart by the sea breeze and became sloppy.

Now Franco Duva cannot be said to be down and out, it is more appropriate to describe him as casual and relaxed. After all, the leather sandals on his feet are limited edition Italian luxury brand Adele Fendi, which cost more than 3,000 US dollars.

"Mr. Duva, why are you here?"

"Link, please call me Franco."

Franco Duva smiled.

"OK, Franco, why are you in Miami?"

Link took out two bottles of sparkling water from the refrigerator and handed one to Franco. Franco thanked him and smiled at him, "Link, I'm here to sign a contract with you. How about it? Do you want to consider it?"

"So, you brought 100 million US dollars?"

"Oh, no, of course not, I don't have 100 million US dollars, but I brought sincerity."

"Sincerity?"

Link smiled lightly and said, "Franco, you should know that the sincerity of Top Promotion is worth 20 million US dollars. How much sincerity do you have?"

"Don't worry, I am definitely more sincere than Greg Cohen."

Franco took out a folder and pushed it over from the table.

Link opened it and took a look. The signing bonus was 8 million US dollars, payable in cash;

Winning the first place in the American Olympic Qualifying Tournament will receive a bonus of 100,000;

Winning the Olympic gold medal will receive 1 million, the silver medal will receive 500,000, and the bronze medal will receive 200,000;

Winning any international or domestic amateur boxing competition will receive a bonus ranging from 100,000 to 1 million;

After turning to professional boxing, winning the intercontinental boxing champion gold belt of the four major organizations will receive a bonus of 200,000, and winning the world-class boxing champion gold belt of the four major organizations will receive a bonus of 1 million for each.

In terms of income sharing, before becoming the world boxing champion, he and the company will share 5:5; after winning the world boxing champion title, he and the company will share 6:4; if he can keep the boxing champion title for more than five years, he will share 7:3, and if he can keep the title for more than ten years, he will share 8:2.

And so on.

The content of the contract is very detailed.

From competition to publicity, logistics, and medical care, from competition bonus income, PPV income, to peripheral income sharing, and so on.

It covers a boxer's entire career, including what level of pension benefits he will enjoy after retirement.

"Link, how is it?"

When he was reading the contract, Franco Duva stared at him with his arms propped up. When he saw that he had finished reading, he immediately asked.

Link did not answer. Although the contract was good, it still did not meet his expectations.

He turned to the first page and pointed to the "Dynasty Promotions Company" on it and asked: "Why is it Dynasty Promotions Company?"

"Don't you know? Some time ago, I had a falling out with my father. He dismissed me from the position of president of the main event promotion company. I sold my shares and founded Dynasty Promotions Company in New York with tens of millions of dollars.

This is the biggest news in the boxing world recently. I thought you knew it. Haven't you heard of it?"

Franco asked in surprise.

Link shook his head and looked at the name "Dynasty Boxing Company" and felt a little incredible.

It was not that Franco's behavior of betraying the Duva family and starting a new business was incredible, but that he was surprised at the emergence of this company.

Because "Dynasty Promotions Company" should have appeared four or five years later.

Four or five years later, Franco Duva and his brother Dino Duva were dissatisfied with Lou Duva's business strategy, so they took some people to start their own business and founded Dynasty Promotions.

After the old Duva passed away in 2017, the main event company was managed by Lou Duva's daughter-in-law, Nora Duva, who is also Franco Duva's wife.

Franco and his brother Dino continued to run Dynasty Promotions.

Link knew about this company because Dynasty Promotions had a good cooperative relationship with the Chinese boxing team. It had signed Chinese boxers Zhang Zhilei, Meng Fanlong, Wang Zhimin and others, and had done boxing promotions in China for several years, making it quite famous.

They focused their business on the mainland, hoping to open up a market in this giant country with a population of 1.4 billion.

The result was, of course, a complete failure.

Chinese people are used to watching high-flying kung fu and martial arts movies, and are not very interested in boxing. In addition, Chinese boxers are either skinny or fat, wearing strange shorts and hugging each other on the stage, which is not very beautiful.

No ratings, no advertising share, no ticket revenue.

Dynasty Promotions lost a lot of money in the mainland, and finally had to give up the mainland market, close its domestic branches, and withdraw all investments to the United States.

But at that time, the top domestic event promotion in the United States was the only one that stood out, and other companies such as Arena Promotion, Queensbury Boxing Promotion, Golden Boy Promotion, Top Champion Promotion, TGB Boxing Promotion, GTD Boxing Promotion, etc. were all blooming.

Dynasty Promotions does not have much room for survival, and bankruptcy is inevitable.

What Link did not expect was that Franco Duva would defect from the main event several years in advance and create Dynasty Promotions.

Butterfly effect?

"Link, don't worry. Although Dynasty Promotions is a newly established company, most of the backbone members of the company come from the main event company. There are more than 40 people, and there are talents in all aspects. As long as you are willing to join Dynasty Promotions, we will definitely train you as a core boxing champion."

Franco Duva said sincerely.

Link pondered for a moment, and it was not bad to go to Dynasty Promotions. It was an undeveloped blue ocean with a relatively large operating space.

But he did not have much confidence in Franco as a partner. This person was warm, sincere, and emotional. It was good to make friends, but as an entrepreneur, he was obviously not qualified.

"Franco, signing a contract is a bit troublesome. I have to go to Havana the day after tomorrow to participate in the Olympic qualifiers. I don't have time to deal with this matter. How about we talk about cooperation after the Olympics?"

"20% of the shares!"

Franco Duva suddenly grabbed his arm and said excitedly, "Link, I can give you 20% of the shares of Dynasty Promotion, and the status of a company partner. How about we run Dynasty Promotion together?"

Link was a little surprised. Although the value of 20% of Dynasty Promotion shares was not high, it was about a few million.

But the other party was willing to give shares, and this sincerity was amazing. This was not just optimistic, but very optimistic.

This "optimism" made Link have to rethink whether to agree.

In fact, he had no intention of signing a contract with a promotion company, not before entering the professional boxing world.

His plan was to play amateur competitions first, get as many championship titles as possible, and then turn to the professional boxing world after half a year, showing his strength, potential, and commercial value in professional competitions, and attracting negotiations with the promotion company.

Talking about signing with professional records, you can take the initiative in negotiations, get more signing bonuses, and better income sharing.

Because he had no intention of signing, when he was chatting with Franco and Greg Cohen, he called out such excessive demands as 100 million US dollars and 70% income share, which made them retreat.

Now Franco has offered 8 million signing bonus, tens of millions reward mechanism, good competition share terms, and 20% shares of Dynasty Promotion, and the status of partner, which seems to be full of sincerity, which makes it difficult for him to refuse.

Link pondered and said: "Franco, I am just an amateur boxer and have never played a professional game. You are also an old man in the boxing world. You should know that many boxers are very good in amateur competitions, but after switching to professional competitions, their results are desperately poor, such as Henry Tillman. Aren't you worried that I am also this type of boxer?"

Henry Tillman is the gold medalist of the 91kg class in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. In the Olympic qualifying selection, he defeated Tyson twice and let Tyson be his substitute, but after switching to professional boxing, he was KOed by Tyson in one round in 1990, which also became a strange story in the boxing world.

"Haha, Link, I believe you. You will never be a character like Henry Tillman.

Even if you are, it doesn't matter. What you said to me on the train is definitely not something an ordinary person can say and dare to say.

You are a powerful person, a person worth cooperating with. I not only invest in your boxing, but also in you as a person. I think you will become a great person in the future. How about it? Do you want to gamble?"

Franco Duva stretched out his palm and looked at him eagerly.

Link thought for a while, stretched out his hand and shook it.

Although Dynasty Promotion is a new company, it is not as good as Top Promotion, Main Event, Don King Promotion, etc. in terms of capital, connections and business.

But the new company has great potential, less internal competition and consumption, and joining Dynasty Promotion will be less troublesome.

In addition, Franco Duva is the eldest son of the Duva family, the former president of the Main Event Company, and the husband of the current president. He has no shortage of resources and connections. It is also a good choice to cooperate with such a company.

However, there are still some details worth discussing regarding the terms in the contract.

Link and Franco Duva only signed a draft contract, and the formal contract will be discussed in detail after the Olympic qualifying competition.