Chương 155: Chapter 155: Award Ceremony (Patron Bonus Chapter 110)
During the two-hour lunch break, Link and Dino played basketball at the stadium. At two o'clock, they returned to the competition venue to watch Mario's final match.
In the final, Mario's opponent was also a Latino boxer, Cosme Arnold, who was lean and muscular, 182 cm tall, with an arm span over 192 cm.
Just by looking at his physique, he seemed to be an agile, technical boxer with good stamina and willpower.
"Mario has met a strong opponent. It will be difficult for him to win."
Morales said while watching the ring.
Link nodded. If it were him facing this opponent, he would only need to surpass the opponent in speed and then use heavy punches to implement a KO tactic. It wouldn't be difficult to defeat him.
But Mario's speed was his weakness, and his stamina and technique might not be better than the opponent's. His only advantage was that his punches were slightly heavier.
However, in amateur competitions, the boxers wore protective gear, so having slightly heavier punches wasn't much of an advantage.
After the match started, Mario attacked fiercely for one round, throwing over 60 punches, but only 3 hit the opponent's effective areas, while the opponent hit him 7 times, including once in the face.
Mario was very passive.
"Link, any good ideas?"
Coach West asked.
Link looked at the ring and nodded. "I have some ideas, but we need to wait."
"Why? Why not use the tactics right away?" Dino and Reggie asked curiously.
Link shook his head. "Mario's ability to execute tactics is poor. It's useless to bring them out now."
In the first round, Mario was beaten badly. Link asked Reggie to take his gold medal and go under the ring to tell Mario to surrender, as he couldn't win anyway.
Mario was furious and almost started a fight with Reggie.
In the second round, Mario continued to attack fiercely, while his opponent continued to dodge flexibly and counterattack.
In this round, Mario threw 72 punches, only hitting the opponent's effective areas 4 times, while being hit 8 times. The score was 7:15, a big deficit.
Link asked Reggie to show off to Mario again, saying that Coach West was going to reward him with a sports car, no worse than the Pontiac GTO.
As soon as Mario heard about the sports car, his eyes turned red, and he roared, waving his fists.
"Link, by stimulating Mario like this, can he defeat his opponent?"
Dino asked, looking at Mario who seemed to be on stimulants.
"No, he'll continue to lose this round."
"Then what's the point of doing this?"
"Wait and see!"
Link watched the match in the ring, finding it interesting. In the past, he was the one competing in the ring, being watched by the audience below.
Now, he was sitting here, watching others compete. He found that as a spectator, he could see the moves, tactics, habitual movements, personalities, and boxing awareness of both sides more clearly.
At the same time, he thought about how he was competing under the watchful eyes of tens of thousands of people. It was actually a process of showcasing his own abilities, personality, and charm. The stronger the opponent, the more exciting the match, the more fully he could showcase himself, and his personal abilities and charm would be stimulated and amplified, attracting and conquering more spectators.
After realizing this, he began to reflect on his past matches and found that he hadn't performed well in his previous professional matches.
He won too quickly, and due to limited time, he couldn't showcase more of his abilities and charm.
Apart from leaving an impressive record in the media, his powerful punches and speed, there wasn't much else to boast about. It was a bit anticlimactic.
In comparison, although boxing legends like Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, and Joe Frazier didn't have as many wins and records in boxing, they left a deeper impression on boxing fans, including their tenacious spirit, resilient willpower, superb skills, never-say-die fighting spirit, and cunning tactics.
In the hearts of boxing fans, such boxers were more charismatic and inspiring. That's why, even decades after their retirement, boxing fans still miss them.
Link and his contemporary boxers seemed to have a common problem: they were too impetuous, overly focused on the results of the match, and couldn't fully immerse themselves in the competition, unable to show the audience more. It was a bit like fast food.
This might also be one of the reasons for the decline of contemporary boxing.
After understanding this, Link frowned and pondered. How could he perform better in the ring and become more charismatic?
"Link, stop daydreaming. The third round is almost over. Mario has been hit 9 times and only hit his opponent 5 times. He's about to lose. What's your plan?" Dino shouted, pulling his arm.
Link looked at Mario in the ring. He had been full of fighting spirit in the first three rounds, but after losing three rounds in a row, his stamina and willpower had seriously declined, and he had lost all fighting spirit. He had probably already accepted the outcome of defeat.
Link said a few words to Coach West, who thought for a moment and agreed to his suggestion.
After the third round ended, Coach West walked over and whispered a few words to Mario.
Mario hung his head, looking dejected, and didn't react much to Coach West's words.
Coach West didn't say anything more and returned to the audience.
"Go Mario!"
Reggie and the others shouted.
In the fourth round, Mario stopped attacking and started retreating while fighting. Seeing him sweating profusely, panting, and without much fighting spirit, his opponent tried to counterattack and expand his lead.
The opponent punched Mario repeatedly, but Mario didn't fight back, only passively defending.
When the fourth round reached over 80 seconds, Mario retreated to a corner and suddenly counterattacked, landing several heavy punches on his opponent, forcing him into the corner and using his stout body to block his movement.
The opponent was caught off guard and could only protect his head with his arms, constantly dodging.
Mario's fists continuously hit the opponent's head and face until the opponent hugged him. The referee came over to separate them, and the exchange ended.
"Is this your tactic?"
Dino asked in surprise.
"A bit early."
Link shook his head. Just now in the match, he noticed that Mario's opponent would pause for a moment after being hit, as if stunned.
He guessed that the opponent's ability to withstand blows wasn't very high, and his ability to cope with Mario's heavy punches was poor.
Therefore, through Coach West, he persuaded Mario to use a cornering tactic, forcing the opponent into the corner, limiting his speed, and then launching a series of attacks.
Unfortunately, Mario's punches weren't heavy enough, and his punching speed wasn't fast enough. If it were him, he could have knocked out the opponent with that wave of head attacks.
"Link, if you had this tactic, why didn't you bring it out earlier?" Dino asked.
"In the first three rounds, the opponent wasn't exhausted, and Mario couldn't corner him. Also, Mario's mentality is a problem. He performs averagely in favorable situations but can sometimes perform exceptionally well in adverse situations."
Link explained.
There were more than twenty seconds left in the fourth round. Mario, taking advantage of his opponent's lack of recovery, launched another fierce attack. This time, the opponent's reaction was even slower, and he was hit in the head twice by Mario in a row.
In the fifth round, the opponent started to fight passively, circling around Mario, trying to survive the remaining two minutes with this method.
Mario directly adopted a foul tactic, reaching out to hug his opponent and taking the opportunity to land two punches.
After being separated by the referee, Mario pounced on him again, punching him near the ropes, pressing him with his belly, and before the opponent could react, he landed several more heavy swings on his head.
Unfortunately, he still couldn't knock down his opponent.
After being separated by the referee, the opponent continued to move around, but his movements were much slower than in the previous rounds.
Reggie and Morales shouted from below the ring, "Sports car! Sports car! Sports car!"
Mario seized the time to attack. At 86 seconds, he once again successfully cornered his opponent and landed five consecutive swings on his head, causing him to fall for the first time.
Seeing Mario knock down his opponent, the audience cheered, and Reggie and the people from the boxing gym also shouted loudly.
Mario's momentum rose, while his opponent's state declined severely.
At 112 seconds, Mario hit the opponent three more times and wanted to continue attacking, but the bell signaling the end of the match rang.
Ding ding ding!
Due to only one knockdown, Mario couldn't win by KO. Both of them stood in front of the referee's table, and everyone looked expectantly at the three judges as they revealed their scores.
The final result was 32:31; 30:30; 31:30. Two judges ruled in favor of Mario, and one judge ruled a draw. Mario won with a slight advantage.
"Roar!!!"
Seeing this score, Mario roared, waving his fists at the sky, and then pounded his chest forcefully in Link's direction, looking very arrogant.
Link smiled indifferently.
After the heavyweight match ended, the award ceremony began immediately. The stadium's speakers played "Unstoppable," and Link and Mr. John Cartier, the vice president of the Amateur Boxing Association, walked onto the boxing ring.
"Link, I won! I won! I'm a champion too!"
Mario shouted at him from the podium.
Link clapped his hands lightly.
"Haha, Link, you thought I would definitely lose, but how about now? Hahaha, you were wrong, dead wrong!"
Mario shouted triumphantly, waving his arms.
Link nodded, shook hands with the third-place winner, congratulated him, and hung a bronze medal around his neck.
"..."
Mario's eyes suddenly widened. "You, you, you..."
Link shook hands with the second-place winner, congratulated him, and hung a silver medal around his neck.
"You, you're presenting the awards?"
Mario asked in shock.
Link smiled slightly. "Am I not qualified to present you with the award?"
He was not only an Olympic champion and a world boxing champion, but in April, he was also named the 08/09 Best Boxing Promoter of the Year by "The Ring" magazine because he had promoted boxing matches on many occasions, attracting more attention to the sport.
After the news of his attendance at the competition was made public by the media, the Boxing Association sent people to invite him to be the award presenter, saying that having him present the awards could also attract more attention to the event.
Link didn't refuse.
Mario glared at him, the flesh on his face trembling.
Link picked up the gold medal and smiled at him.
Mario gritted his teeth and held out for a few seconds before finally lowering his head.
"Good job! Keep working hard!"
Link patted his shoulder and said.
The corner of Mario's mouth twitched fiercely. He swore that if he had known Link was the award presenter, he wouldn't have fought so hard to win the match.
After the competition, the news of Mario and Reggie winning the National Championships in the cruiserweight and super welterweight divisions was widely reported by the media.
Because both of them were from the same gym as Link, and Link's performance in the boxing world was amazing, the media and the public also paid great attention to them, curious whether they would become as good as Link in the future.
However, the one who benefited the most was West Gym. A gym had produced three amateur championship winners in a row. This achievement was too amazing. According to Mario, Coach West was now grinning every day, smiling like a madman.
(End of Chapter)
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