Chapter 119: Chapter 119: Cocktail Party
For Link, the biggest gain from defeating Tyson was not the large amount of prize money, but the experience of competing with a heavyweight boxer.
After competing with Tyson, he also knew his strengths and weaknesses compared to heavyweight boxers, and he would have more confidence when facing higher-weight opponents in the future.
In addition, Tyson was a legendary boxer and the spokesperson of the boxing world. It was the wish of every boxer to compete with him on the same stage.
Link had also thought about fighting Tyson before, but when he debuted, Tyson was already over fifty years old, and they were in different weight classes.
Now that he had the opportunity to fight Tyson and defeat him while Tyson could still fight, it felt very good.
"Link, what are you doing here?"
In the hotel lobby, Ivanka walked over from the crowd, wearing a wine-red off-the-shoulder long dress.
Her blonde hair was pinned up, her fair skin glowed with a cold light, and a colorful gemstone necklace hung on her slender swan neck. Below it were two full curves, although perfectly wrapped by a strapless top, the exposed outline would still make people want to take a few more glances.
The hem of the dress was slit above the knee, revealing long and straight legs when she walked, estimated to be close to 1.1 meters, similar to Taylor's. The difference was that Taylor's were fairer and thinner, while Ivanka's were rounder and looked more elastic.
Link admired her for a moment and then shifted his gaze to Ivanka's delicate makeup.
"I just had a few drinks and came here to listen to music."
"Don't stay here. You're the protagonist of the party, and many people want to chat with you," Ivanka pointed to the lively crowd next to her and said.
Link felt a little helpless.
After the boxing match, Mr. Trump held a grand celebration party at the hotel, inviting hundreds of VIPs to attend. On the surface, it seemed like a celebration of his victory, but in reality, it was more like a Trump Group investment promotion meeting.
Link wasn't interested in this kind of party. After dealing with a few people, he came to the piano stage alone to watch the band's performance.
"Why don't we wait a little longer? Your dad seems to be giving an important speech," Link looked at Mr. Trump, who was talking eloquently in the crowd, and smiled.
"Don't worry about him. By the time he's finished, the party will be over," Ivanka said helplessly.
Link smiled slightly, agreeing with Ivanka's words. Mr. Trump was a social terror. As long as he had an audience, he could talk for a day and a night.
Ivanka brushed the blonde hair by her ear and said while walking, "Link, you are now a socialite, a multimillionaire, and a member of the upper class. You should learn the social skills here, such as getting to know as many people as possible at parties and getting their business cards.
Because the people who are qualified to come here are mostly distinguished and hold some resources in their hands. If you get to know these people, you will have the opportunity to get their help when necessary in the future. This is what connections are."
Link nodded. He understood what Ivanka meant and the importance of connections.
However, he had his own way of making money, so he didn't value these connections very much and didn't want to pretend to be a member of the upper class.
"Eva, we are partners. I am responsible for music creation, and you are responsible for social management. How about that?"
"But you can't just stand here. It will make you look very indifferent, and no one will dare to approach you and talk to you."
Ivanka didn't care if he was willing or not and pulled his arm into the crowd, introducing him to a bunch of acquaintances.
There were New Jersey congressmen, New Jersey real estate tycoons, Atlantic City casino owners, Atlantic Records presidents, Fox TV executives, etc. They were either billionaires, politicians, or executives of Fortune 500 companies.
â€"â€"
At first, Link thought that Ivanka brought him here to help him expand his network. It wasn't until he saw the sons and grandsons of several tycoons looking at him with hostile eyes that he suddenly understood that he seemed to have become a shield.
"Remember to invite me to dinner sometime," Link whispered to Ivanka in the middle of the crowd.
"Why?"
Ivanka maintained her smile and asked in a voice that only the two of them could hear.
Link glanced around and smiled, "Look at their eyes. If looks could kill, I would be riddled with holes."
Ivanka noticed his gaze and looked at the corner of her lips, "You're a boxing champion, are you still afraid of these gay-like men?"
"Of course not, that's why I want you to invite me to dinner instead of running away from you."
Link suddenly reached out and put his arm around Ivanka's waist, his hand accidentally slipping down a little, landing in a rather sensitive area.
The eyes of those people immediately became sharper, and their gazes towards him became more unkind.
Ivanka's body tensed for a moment and then became soft. She pursed her lips and said, "Don't go too far. If they want to beat you up, I won't help you."
"Wouldn't that help you even more?"
"You're being a hooligan."
Ivanka pinched the flesh on his waist, trying to find some fat, but couldn't find any. She had to pinch his skin and asked coldly, "How does it feel?"
Link withdrew his hand and praised, "First-class!"
"Humph!"
Ivanka pinched him hard before letting go and looked at a few middle-aged women chatting in the crowd.
"The woman in the pink suit in front is Murdoch's wife. You can speak Chinese, right? Go chat with her. Maybe she will like you. The one next to her is a member of the board of directors of Hearst Corporation and a widow. You can also try her hand."
"No chance, your dad is coming."
Link looked towards the middle of the crowd and saw Mr. Trump with a dark face, striding towards them with a strange gait, his blond hair flowing, like an old but ambitious lion.
"He's so annoying."
Ivanka let go of Link and took the initiative to greet him.
The father and daughter went to the side and talked in a low voice, seemingly not very happy.
Link had no intention of getting involved in their family dispute. Seeing director Woody Allen coming over, he took the initiative to greet him.
â€"â€"
"Hey, Link, are you dating Miss Trump?" Director Woody Allen came over and asked.
Director Martin Scorsese was with him.
Director Martin was also a famous Hollywood director, with representative works such as "Taxi Driver", "The King of Comedy", "Cape Fear", "The Departed", "The Aviator", "Gangs of New York", and so on.
He had won the Best Director award at the three major European film festivals, the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, and the Academy Award for Best Director. He was almost a Grand Slam director.
Unlike director Woody Allen's casual dressing style, he wore a formal suit, a bow tie, and had thick black hair and eyebrows. He didn't look like someone in his sixties.
Link greeted the two directors, "Don't misunderstand, Miss Trump and I are partners. We started a record company."
"Really? Just now at the party, everyone was talking about when you two will get married. They are all very envious of you," Director Woody Allen winked and joked.
"Haha, I'm afraid I'll disappoint everyone. We are not in that kind of relationship," Link said, raising his glass.
"Link, Director Allen said you are interested in acting?" Director Scorsese said.
"Haha, this kid said he wants to be an Oscar winner," Director Woody Allen laughed and coughed a few times.
Director Scorsese also looked at him with surprise. A boxer wants to be an actor? This is like wanting to cross-industry and beat professional actors unless he has god-level acting skills.
Link shrugged and smiled, "I like to do challenging things, such as boxing, singing, and acting. If I can become a professional actor, then the Oscar is my goal."
"It's a good thing for young people to have goals," Director Scorsese smiled and exchanged contact information with him.
The two directors were old, and after chatting for a while, they left early to go back to the hotel to rest.
Link saw them off and returned to the party. He met Holyfield, De La Hoya, and Larry Holmes, who came up to greet him.
Holyfield was a boxer under Main Events, and they had met at the boxing gym.
Larry Holmes was from New York. After retiring, he was hired by Main Events as a part-time boxing coach. Link had also chatted with him a few times.
Only De La Hoya was meeting him for the first time.
This man was 35 years old, not tall, with light-skinned Latino descent, and handsome. He had won six world championship titles in different weight classes and was currently one of the highest-paid boxers in the boxing world, known as the "Golden Boy" of boxing.
He was not only a boxer but also an entrepreneur. He had a Golden Boy Promotions company, a casual clothing company, a real estate company, opened a Spanish-language boxing channel on HBO cable TV, and had the distribution rights of four major boxing magazines.
He was worth hundreds of millions, a model of success for boxers.
"Link, are you interested in coming to Golden Boy Promotions? I heard that you previously made a condition with Franco, asking for 100 million US dollars. I'll give you 50 million, plus Golden Boy Promotions shares worth no less than 50 million. How about that?"
Hoya wore a suit and tie, his hair combed back, looking like a successful person.
Link was a little surprised that he would poach him at this time. He thought for a moment and still refused.
Golden Boy Promotions was founded in 2004 and was mainly responsible for De La Hoya's boxing events. In the past two years, it had also signed a few boxers and its development was good. In the future, it would sign champions like Alvarez and Golovkin, becoming one of the top five promotion companies in the boxing industry.
If it were before Dynasty Promotions, he would consider joining Golden Boy Promotions, but now he was already a world champion, and the treatment of Dynasty Promotions was also good. Moreover, after Hoya became the boss, he also became a capitalist and had a case of defaulting on boxers' shares.
He didn't believe that Hoya would offer a better share of match revenue than Dynasty Promotions.
"Link, I can give you 70% of the match revenue share," Hoya further said.
"90%, I can consider it," Link smiled.
Hoya thought for a moment and shook his head. With a 9:1 split, the promotion company would have no profit at all.
"Link, let's have a match sometime and see who has better skills."
"Are you sure?"
Hoya was quite good when he was young. He had won an Olympic gold medal, a Golden Gloves championship, and a US National Boxing Championship. His amateur record was 223 wins and 5 losses. In terms of amateur competition results alone, few people in the boxing world could match him.
After turning professional in 1992, he won six world championship titles in junior lightweight, lightweight, super lightweight, welterweight, super welterweight, and middleweight. He was Pacquiao's idol.
But in recent years, after moving up to super welterweight and middleweight, his strength had declined a lot, and he had lost to Bernard Hopkins, Mayweather, and Pacquiao.
Link didn't think Hoya had much chance of winning against him.
"I think our match will definitely have a considerable income," Hoya smiled meaningfully.
Link thought for a moment and understood what he was thinking.
After losing to Pacquiao, there were rumors that Hoya was going to retire, but he was currently one of the highest-paid boxers in the boxing world, so it wasn't cost-effective to retire directly.
He probably wanted to make another fortune before retiring. With their skin color, appearance, skills, and fame, if handled properly, the attention this match received wouldn't be lower than the one between Hoya and Pacquiao.
The prize money for the match might even exceed 100 million US dollars.
Thinking of this, Link felt that it was a good idea to have an exhibition match with him.
(End of Chapter)
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