章 116: Chapter 116: Fight Against Tyson
While he was preparing for the competition, Taylor's second album "Fearless" was also released.
In its first week, it topped the Billboard 200 album chart with 650,000 copies sold, becoming a huge hit.
Whether on the streets, in supermarkets, or on radio and TV, you could hear songs from "Fearless", including "The Way I Loved You", "You Belong With Me", "Love Story", and the newly added "Dream It Possible".
After its release, six songs entered the top ten of the Billboard singles chart, and "Dream It Possible" directly debuted at the top of the singles chart, becoming Taylor's first number-one single.
With the album's hot sales, Taylor was also very busy, often flying to other places for promotion, autograph sessions, preparing for concert tours, and so on.
Usually, Link could only contact her by phone, and sometimes when they were on the phone, Taylor would have to get busy with work.
Link couldn't help but think of a famous saying, it's hard to be a famous woman, and it's even harder to be the boyfriend of a famous woman.
He continued to train at the boxing gym.
From the end of the Olympics to December, through more than three months of strength and speed training, he increased his right fist strength to 1600 pounds and his left fist strength to 1420 pounds. His body's reaction ability also improved slightly.
However, according to Dino's gossip, Tyson had also been undergoing intensive training in recent months, and his fist strength had recovered to over 1600 pounds. His condition was no worse than before 2003, so Link should be careful.
Link naturally wouldn't be careless.
Tyson was a veteran boxing champion. In the 1980s and 1990s, when the boxing world was full of fierce fighters, he became the spokesperson of boxing with his fists. His strength, speed, technique, tactics, and boxing awareness were all at a very high level.
Even though he was older, he was still a strong old beast, not to mention that he weighed more than 60 pounds more than Link.
In order to prepare for the match against Tyson, he put aside all his work, even the promotion of the single was postponed, and focused on training in the gym.
On December 15th, the match between Link and Tyson was held at the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City.
Before the match, Trump Entertainment conducted a lot of publicity and promotion for the match, from advertisements to newspapers to the big screen in Times Square, there were relevant news reports.
Trump Entertainment claimed that this match was a "world-class battle" and the third unequal battle in 2008 after Holyfield VS Valuev and Pacquiao VS De La Hoya.
The inequality here referred to weight. Tyson was more than 60 pounds heavier than Link, Valuev was 100 pounds heavier than Holyfield, and De La Hoya was a welterweight, 5 pounds heavier than Pacquiao who had just moved up.
But in terms of overall influence, the match between De La Hoya and Pacquiao received more attention. This match took place on December 7th in Las Vegas. After 8 rounds, Pacquiao won by TKO over De La Hoya.
The prize money for this match was as high as 100 million US dollars. In the end, Pacquiao took away 65 million US dollars, and De La Hoya got 35 million US dollars. This surpassed the previous highest record of 65 million US dollars created by Tyson and Holyfield in 1997 and became the highest-paid match in the boxing world so far.
It was much higher than the 1 million US dollars for Link and Tyson.
However, in terms of influence, Link and Tyson were not much worse than them.
Tyson was a legend in the past boxing world, the spokesperson of boxing. Link was an Olympic champion and currently one of the top ten most popular boxing stars in the world.
Any match between the two would be sought after by boxing fans, let alone a match between the two.
Boxing fans all wanted to see how much strength Tyson still had after three years of retirement and whether he could continue to fight in the boxing world.
Everyone also wanted to see how Link, the overlord of the super middleweight division, would perform when he encountered a heavyweight boxer who was more than 60 pounds heavier than him, and how many rounds he could last.
The "Chicago Tribune" listed the advantages and disadvantages of Link and Tyson in detail.
For example, Link had the advantage in speed, stamina, and endurance.
Tyson had the advantage in punch power, resistance to blows, and match experience.
The two were tied in technique and tactics.
Finally, it concluded that the probability of Link winning was 45%, and the probability of Tyson winning was 55%. Tyson had a slight advantage.
At the Atlantic City betting company, the odds of Link winning were 1:1.5, and the odds of Tyson winning were 1:1.8. The betting company believed that the probability of Link winning was higher, but not by much.
Because this match was full of suspense, on the day of the match, many people flew to Atlantic City, New Jersey, to watch the boxing match live.
Ordinary people who did not have the conditions also sat in front of the TV, ready to watch the live broadcast of the match.
â€"â€"
Bang bang bang!
In the VIP lounge, Link was shirtless, wearing red shorts, his hands wrapped in bandages, constantly punching in the air to warm up.
"Link, Tyson has heavy punches and a strong body. In the first three rounds, try not to fight him head-on. Use your skills to consume his stamina first.
After three rounds, his attacks will become impatient, and his flaws will be exposed. Then you can use your fists to attack him.
According to his current physical condition, I estimate that you can KO him within six rounds and win the match," Coach Brooks explained.
Link nodded. Coach Brooks had worked with Tyson for two years and knew Tyson's situation very well. With him giving advice, Link was more confident in this match.
"Six rounds? Link, can you KO Tyson in the sixth round?" Dino asked, leaning against the cabinet with his arms crossed.
"Not sure, I'm confident I can beat him, but in which round and how, I can't tell you now."
"Okay! Then I'll blindly bet on the sixth round," Dino thought for a moment and said.
Link continued his warm-up training. While he was preparing for the match, there was a pre-match warm-up performance outside. Trump International invited Green Day, famous singer Ricky Martin, black soul singer Macy Gray, and others to perform live.
After their performances, there was also a Love Haus men's and women's underwear fashion show, a UFC women's lightweight fighting match, and finally, it was Link and Tyson's turn to take the stage.
"Next, please welcome Olympic champion, WBA super middleweight world champion, Link Baker!!!"
Hearing the host's loud shout, Link strode out of the tunnel entrance. A bright light shone on him, and the scene erupted in applause and cheers. Link raised his arms and waved, striding onto the boxing ring.
He noticed that most of the audience seats around the boxing ring were filled with well-dressed men and women. The men were in dark suits, and the women were wearing evening gowns and fur coats, as if they were attending a banquet.
There were many familiar faces among them, such as Mr. Trump, Murdoch, the governor of New Jersey, congressmen, the mayor of New York City, and other politicians.
There were also boxing veterans such as Old Duva, Bob Arum, WBA President Mendoza, Holyfield, De La Hoya, Riddick Bowe, and others.
"Hey, Link, come on, I'm rooting for you," an old man in a suit shouted at him from the front row.
It was director Woody Allen, and there were several familiar faces sitting next to him, also directors in the entertainment industry.
Link waved his fist and strode onto the boxing ring.
As he entered the stage, Tyson swaggered in amid the cheers of tens of thousands of spectators. He was bald, with a thick and muscular body, dark skin like black iron, and many tattoos on his body. He looked several times thicker than Link and very strong.
Seeing Tyson's entrance, the cheers at the scene became even louder. Many older people, including director Woody Allen, applauded vigorously, as if watching Tyson fight was a feeling.
Tyson kept waving his fists at the audience under the boxing ring, looking very excited. Finally, under the referee's urging, he pulled up the ropes and entered the stage.
"Hello, Mike, how are you feeling today?" an HBO reporter stopped Tyson at the edge of the boxing ring and asked.
"Very good, I feel like I can kill a lion."
Tyson clenched his fist and shouted at Link on the stage, "Hey, Link, I'm going to KO you in three rounds. Are you ready to lose?"
Link glanced at him and smiled, "Mike, you're the one who should be prepared. You're old. If you feel unwell during the match, just admit defeat early. I and everyone else don' don't want to see you fall on the boxing ring."
"Link, stop bragging. I'll let you know how big the gap between us is," Tyson shouted, waving his fists.
Link smiled slightly and went to the corner of the ring to rest. Coach Brooks lowered his voice and said, "Tyson is a bit overexcited. He probably used some nerve drugs. Pay attention during the match. His attacks in the first two rounds will probably be very strong."
Link nodded.
Taking drugs was a common thing in professional competitions.
For example, meldonium, a drug used to treat heart disease, could promote blood flow and improve the body's oxygen intake and endurance. It used to be used on the battlefield to improve soldiers' combat effectiveness. Now tennis, rugby, and boxing athletes would take it.
Link didn't care about this. As a boxer, what excited him the most was to encounter a strong opponent in the competition, and then fight wits and courage to defeat him in various ways.
The stronger the opponent, the harder the victory, and the greater the reward of victory, such as Andre Berto, Peters, Aragon, Gadeer, and others.
So after entering the boxing world, he was never afraid of encountering strong opponents, only afraid of not having opponents.
Tyson doing this was even more to his liking.
(End of Chapter)
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