boxer to hollywood

"Who are you thinking about?"

"No one!"

"Don't lie to me, I can tell. You're more forceful when you're distracted."

"...It's Taylor, sorry!"

"It's okay, I don't mind, um... you're thinking about her again, aren't you? I can feel it."

"You're such a tease. Your assistant is almost here, you should go take a shower and change."

"No, I want to stay connected with you."

---

After quietly sending Emma away, Link drove to the Main Events boxing gym to practice boxing.

While he was practicing, Franco came by to discuss with him about moving up to the light heavyweight division. According to the plan, he would be promoted to light heavyweight early next year.

The current top players in this division were mainly four: WBA light heavyweight champion Beibut Shumenov, WBC champion Bernard Hopkins, IBF champion Chad Dawson, and WBO champion Nathan Cleverly.

Among the four champions, there was one familiar face, 'The Executioner' Hopkins.

Hopkins was 45 years old this year, but he was still going strong. He debuted in 1988 and was initially a middleweight boxer. In 1995, he became the IBF middleweight world champion and successfully defended the title for nine consecutive years.

In 2005, he became the WBA-WBC-WBO-IBF middleweight champion of the four major organizations.

In 2006, he moved up to super middleweight and light heavyweight. Last year, after defeating challenger Enrique Ornelas, he won the vacant WBC light heavyweight title. He was quite strong.

Since Link was a famous champion, after being promoted to light heavyweight, he didn't need to fight in ranking matches to earn the challenger qualification. He could directly challenge the champions through the arrangement of his agency.

Franco told him that he had sent challenge invitations to the agencies and boxing organizations of the four champions. So far, only WBA champion Beibut Shumenov had responded, and the agencies of the other three champions had not yet responded.

The agency would continue to coordinate to ensure that his matches in the light heavyweight division next year would go smoothly.

Link was looking forward to the light heavyweight matches.

Firstly, the opponents in the light heavyweight division were stronger, and the matches would be more difficult. Defeating strong opponents would also improve him more.

Secondly, after entering the light heavyweight division, his weight could increase to 80 kilograms.

With his current height and weight, 76 kilograms was considered strong. Adding another seven or eight pounds of muscle would make the muscles in various parts of his body thicker and stronger, and he would look more powerful.

Also, in terms of diet, he didn't have to control it too strictly and could relax a bit and eat more meat.

Thirdly, light heavyweight matches received more attention.

In the boxing world, heavyweight matches had the highest popularity and the broadest market, followed by light heavyweight.

Compared to the former two, super middleweight was only a niche level.

Before Link, the attention received by super middleweight matches was not comparable to middleweight, lightweight, and super flyweight, which also led to a lack of boxing stars in this field and low PPV revenue.

This was also one of the reasons why Link's prize money for the past two matches was only over 20 million, and not 30 or 40 million.

In short, the upper limit of super middleweight was relatively low.

To become a world-renowned super boxing champion, on par with Tyson, Ali, and others, he had to jump out of his comfort zone, go to a higher level to meet stronger opponents, and gain more attention. If successful, the income from each match would also be higher.

These were the advantages.

There were also disadvantages. There were more top players in the light heavyweight division. If he was defeated by his opponent in a match, the loss would be huge.

After talking about the light heavyweight matches, Franco mentioned another matter.

Due to the rapid development of Dynasty Promotion in the past two years, its net income in the first half of the year was higher than that of large boxing sports companies such as Top Rank, Main Events, and Golden Boy Promotions. This attracted the attention of investors.

Now, several financial institutions engaged in sports investment wanted to invest in Dynasty Promotion, valuing it between 250 million and 300 million US dollars.

Franco asked him if he wanted to accept the financing.

The advantage of accepting it was that the company would have more funds to use for publicity, brand marketing, and channel expansion, making Link more famous worldwide and increasing box office and PPV revenue.

The reason why Tyson became famous worldwide was that he was strong enough, and his agency, Don King Productions, and the American media did a very successful job in publicity.

With the extra funds, Dynasty Promotion could also sign and train more professional boxers.

Then the company would not have to rely on him alone to sustain itself, and its development would be more stable.

The disadvantage was that Link's shares in Dynasty Promotion would be diluted, and there would be conflicts within the company's management in the future.

This was not a big problem for Link.

He owned 30% of Dynasty's shares, about 30 to 40 million. After financing, the value of his shares would also increase.

In addition, the main source of income for Dynasty Promotion was the share of his boxing match revenue. No matter who managed the company, it could not shake his position as the core of the team.

If the management's decisions harmed his interests, he had the right to demand correction.

If the cooperation was not pleasant, he could terminate the contract early.

When signing the contract, the penalty for breach of contract between him and Dynasty Promotion was three times the signing bonus, about 24 million US dollars. This amount of money was nothing to him.

Link told Franco that everything was up to him to decide, and no matter what decision he made, he would support it.

Franco expressed his gratitude. 

Link also discussed with Franco that in the future, Dynasty Promotion could not only sign boxers but also athletes in football, basketball, and rugby to diversify its development so that Dynasty Promotion could go further.

In this regard, their peer, Golden Boy Promotions, was doing well. In addition to boxing, they also signed athletes in niche sports such as tennis, badminton, and ice hockey.

Link's idea was that in the future, when he had time, he would buy an NBA team or a rugby team to play with.

Franco said he would consider it after hearing this.

After sending Franco away, Link continued to practice boxing.

In the middle, Mario came to bother him, saying that he wanted to practice with him to see how long he could last in his hands and whether he had improved.

Link did not agree. After Mario turned professional last year, he won several times in a row at the beginning, but later participated in the WBC cruiserweight American championship fight and was eliminated in the second round of the preliminary competition.

His current professional record was 6 wins and 3 losses in 9 fights, which was average, slightly worse than Reggie's.

"Link, you won't fight me, do you think I'm not worthy of being your opponent?"

Mario asked with a dark face, holding his big belly.

"Yes, you're not worthy!"

"..."

The muscles at the corner of Mario's eyes twitched, and he wanted to get angry, but he remembered that this guy was no longer the little boxer from the past, but a billionaire, a big star, and a super boxing champion.

He rubbed his big nose and asked unhappily, "Why?"

Link glanced at him, took a water bottle and poured it over his hot muscles from the top of his head, then wiped his chest muscles with a towel. "If you want to know if you've improved, go to the punching power testing machine. If your punching power has increased, it means you've improved, and vice versa. Why fight me?"

"My technique..."

"Don't talk to me about technique. This is professional boxing. Technique without punching power is just a paper tiger. If you want to continue fighting in the boxing world, train honestly and don't think about becoming famous overnight all the time. If you don't want to fight anymore, go back to Miami early to inherit the family business. Anyway, your family is not short of money."

Link said.

Mario's family had a cattle farm and a beef processing plant. They were one of the largest beef suppliers in Palm Beach County, with a market value of seven or eight million. He was also considered a rich second generation.

"No, I want to box. My goal is to become the cruiserweight world champion, at least the world champion of a small organization."

Mario clenched his fists and said confidently, but then he slumped his shoulders and said, "But professional boxing matches are too difficult. It's very difficult to win a match. Sometimes I try my best and my face gets swollen, but I still can't win. What can I do? I'm not like you, practicing for a year, punching power increased by more than fifty pounds, this is too exaggerated, who can compare with you."

Mario wrinkled his face full of flesh, his expression became very aggrieved.

Link shook his head. "A person who loses a game after trying their best will never complain here like you. They will only train hard, strive to improve their strength, and try to turn defeat into victory in the next game. Go train, keep training, your fists and body will not let you down. If you don't believe me, go into closed-door training for half a year, and then participate in the competition again after half a year. If you lose, come to me."

"Okay, that's what you said. If I lose, you must train with me. Don't forget that I am your first sparring partner, not Morales."

Mario clenched his fists and hammered his chest, then ran to the strength training area to lift weights.

Link put on his gloves and continued to fight with his sparring partner, Curry.

After the training, he went to the punching power testing machine alone and tested his current punching power.

Last June, he tested it once. After ten consecutive punches, the maximum value of his right fist was 1610 pounds, and the maximum value of his left fist was 1440 pounds.

After a year, he tested it again. The maximum value of his right fist was 1640 pounds, and the maximum value of his left fist was 1480 pounds.

Although there was an increase, compared to the rapid progress in the second half of 2008, the progress this year was not significant.

According to his current punching power, he didn't have much advantage in the light heavyweight division.

To win the gold belt in this category, he still needed to strengthen his technical training and use technique to make up for the lack of punching power.

(End of Chapter)