boxer to hollywood

Bang! Bang!

On the boxing ring, Link and Mario continued their training.

With Mario's cooperation, Link constantly varied his attack methods: jabs, straight punches, left hooks, uppercuts, and overhand punches.

In the past, due to his smaller stature, he was most skilled at jabs. Jab attacks emphasized speed and surprise, not as powerful as straight punches or hooks, but by quickly hitting effective areas on the opponent's body, he could win by points.

Now, with his increased height, weight, and strength, his arms were also much longer than before, so his offensive style needed some adjustments.

While ensuring his jabs remained sharp, he was also consciously strengthening his straight punches, hooks, uppercuts, and overhand punches.

In combination punches, he also needed to use more damaging straight punches and hooks to achieve a one-punch knockout at critical moments.

After practicing for over an hour, both of them were drenched in sweat.

Miami's weather was quite humid, so indoor ventilation was necessary for a refreshing feeling.

The boxing gym had excellent ventilation, but with the intense exercise, their clothes were constantly getting wet and drying, leaving a layer of sweat residue on their T-shirts.

After a short break, Link started to be Mario's sparring partner.

Mario focused on offense, while Link focused on defense.

For a boxer, offense and defense were equally important. Boxers who excelled in both aspects could survive longer in the professional boxing world.

In the past thirty years, the boxer with the best offensive skills was undoubtedly Tyson.

Tyson had extremely strong offensive capabilities, always moving forward and never retreating. His boxing style was clean, sharp, fierce, and wild, making for great entertainment. He was also considered the most aggressive boxer in the history of professional boxing.

On the defensive end, Tyson's old rival, Evander Holyfield, excelled.

Although Holyfield was also a power puncher, his defensive skills were also extremely refined.

In two WBA title defense matches in 1996 and 1997, Holyfield used his powerful defensive counterattack tactics to defeat Tyson twice in a row, even forcing Tyson to bite his ear.

Link was a power puncher, but he wasn't sure if strength alone would be enough to deal with professional boxers after he entered the professional arena.

To be safe, he planned to excel in both offense and defense, shaping himself into a well-rounded, hexagonal warrior.

"Hey! Link, Mario, stop for a moment. Coach West brought back something good."

Reggie, a fellow boxer, ran over excitedly and shouted.

"What is it?"

Link and Mario stopped and jumped off the ring.

The three of them went to the training area where West, Manager Robinson, and the apprentices were gathered around a rectangular machine over two meters tall.

"Wow! It's a punch strength testing machine!"

Mario exclaimed, pushing through the crowd and excitedly rushing to the machine, feeling it up and down. He then turned around with a puzzled look at Coach West.

"West, I've been urging you to buy one for a long time. I've asked you dozens of times, but you never did. Why did you buy it now? Wait, could it be because of Link?"

Mario plopped down on the ground and said in a resentful tone, "West, you wouldn't buy it when I asked dozens of times, but the day after Link arrives, you bring the machine to the gym. This preferential treatment is too obvious. It's discrimination, blatant discrimination. Do you understand?"

West glared at him with a dark expression. "We bought it a while ago, it just got delivered today."

"Do you think I'll believe that? It wouldn't be delivered sooner or later, but right after Link arrives. Could it be that the manufacturer also knows that a genius has come to our gym and urgently needs this machine for training?"

Mario mocked sarcastically.

Manager Robinson said with a smile, "Mario, it's true. The manufacturer of the punch strength testing machine is in Nevada. If we had bought it yesterday, it definitely wouldn't have arrived today."

"Oh, that seems to be the case."

Mario and the others accepted this explanation, feeling much better.

West and Robinson exchanged glances and smiled knowingly.

They had indeed purchased the machine earlier, but due to the gym's poor performance, they hadn't bothered to set it up for Mario and the others to mess around with. But with Link's arrival, things were different.

Link was a boxer with great potential. As long as they could help Link with his training, they didn't mind investing a bit more.

"Move aside, let me test my punch strength."

Mario pushed away a few curious apprentices, clenched his sandbag-sized fist, roared, and punched the testing target on the machine with all his might.

Bang!

The target retracted, and the numbers on the screen started to jump, quickly rolling from one hundred pounds to seven hundred pounds, finally stopping at the integer value of 780 pounds.

"780 pounds? Haha, Link, come and test yours too."

Mario beckoned.

Link waved his hand, letting Reggie and the other three test first. He wanted to see if the machine was accurate.

The four boxers lined up to test. Except for Reggie, who hit 620 pounds, the other three's results were all in the five hundreds.

"Link, it's your turn. Hurry up and hit it."

Mario urged.

Link put down his notebook, stood in front of the machine, clenched his right fist, and punched the target with force. The numbers on the screen flipped rapidly, and everyone stared at the screen with wide eyes.

Seeing the data exceed 1,000 pounds, everyone exclaimed in surprise. Finally, Link's punch strength stabilized at 1430 pounds.

"Wow, 1430 pounds! I heard that Tyson's peak punch strength was only 1800 pounds, and Holyfield's was 1600 pounds. Link is almost catching up to them."

Mario exclaimed.

"No, no, Link is a middleweight, while Tyson and the others are heavyweights. A middleweight's punch strength almost matching that of a heavyweight champion is incredible."

Reggie looked at Link with admiration.

The other boxers and apprentices looked at Link with awe, as if they had a champion in their midst.

Link smiled slightly. The punch strength testing machine could only estimate the force generated at the moment of impact. It was an estimate, not an actual 1400 pounds.

Moreover, in a boxing match, the opponent was a living person who could move, dodge, and block, not a stationary target waiting to be hit.

To land a 1400-pound punch on an opponent required a certain level of skill.

Knockouts (KOs) in the boxing ring were mostly caused by failing to defend against an opponent's heavy punch, resulting in a direct hit to the head and subsequent dizziness.

This was why the boxing world valued the KO rate. The more times a boxer knocked out an opponent, the greater their power and skill.

Although the data measured by this machine wasn't entirely accurate, it was a useful tool.

Link's strength was gradually increasing through training. With this machine, he could more accurately understand his own growth and formulate corresponding training plans.

"West, I want to test a few more times to see what the average is."

Link said.

"Okay."

West took out his notebook and started recording the test results.

Within three minutes, Link punched the machine ten times in a row. His right fist's best result was 1480 pounds on the third attempt, and the worst was 1130 pounds on the ninth attempt, with an average of 1350 pounds.

His left fist's best result was 1310 pounds, the worst was 880 pounds, and the average was 1020 pounds, a significant difference from his right hand.

This meant that in the boxing ring, if he threw ten punches in a row, his right fist could maintain over 1100 pounds of force, and his left fist could maintain over 1000 pounds.

If any of these ten punches landed on an opponent's head, the opponent would be knocked out.

With Link's demonstrated speed and technique, the probability of missing all ten punches was minimal. In the future, his KO rate in matches would be extremely high.

Link took the notebook and glanced at it, memorizing a few key data points. He would test again every month to see how much he had improved.

"Link, I want to test too. Can you record for me?"

Mario clamored.

"Go ahead."

Mario took a deep breath, roared, and punched the machine ten times in a row.His punches were thunderous, but the data wasn't ideal.

The best result was 810 pounds, the worst was 420 pounds, and the average was less than six hundred. This data was decent for amateur competitions, but in professional matches, his appearance fee wouldn't exceed a thousand dollars.

"Why is there such a big difference?"

Mario looked at Link enviously. His average was less than half of Link's, meaning it would take two of him to equal Link.

"I'm just naturally strong. You don't need to be so envious."

Link smiled.

Hearing this, Mario became even more envious. "Naturally strong" meant that no matter how hard he trained, he couldn't achieve it. It was like a human telling a monkey that they were naturally intelligent. This bastard Link was too good at打击 people.

"Don't be envious. With more training, you'll catch up to Link one day."

Coach West said to them, "You guys continue testing. Remember to turn it off when you're done. Link, let's go to the office and chat."

"Okay!"

Link nodded and followed Coach West to the office.

Standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows of West's office, they could see the Miami Zoo across the street. The environment was quite pleasant.

"Link, take a look at this."

Coach West handed him a document.

It was an application form for the Golden Gloves Championship.

The Golden Gloves Championship was the highest level of amateur boxing in the United States, alongside the National Amateur Boxing Championships and the U.S. Olympic Boxing Trials, collectively known as the three major amateur boxing events.

The importance of the Golden Gloves Championship, in some ways, surpassed the latter two.

Many famous boxers, including Ali, Tyson, Joe Louis, and George Foreman, had achieved excellent results in the Golden Gloves Championship before turning professional.

The Golden Gloves Championship was also considered the essential path for young American boxers to enter the professional boxing world.

It was an excellent platform.

"Link, this year's Golden Gloves Championship starts in early June, ten days from now. If you want to become famous early, this is a good opportunity."

West said.

Link nodded, took out a pen, and started filling out the application form.

Participants in the Golden Gloves Championship had to be U.S. citizens, between the ages of 18 and 39, and non-professional boxers.

The competition had four levels.

The first level was local, where all registered participants competed within their city. The top three from each city would then participate in the state championships.

The state championships were the second level.

The third level was the regional competition, with four regions: Eastern, Southeastern, Northwestern, and Central. The top four from each region would qualify for the National Golden Gloves Championship.

The first three levels were elimination rounds.

The fourth level was the finals, where boxers from the four regions competed for the top three spots, with the champion receiving the Golden Gloves trophy.

The competition was held between June 3rd and June 12th.

The finals were held at the American Airlines Arena in Miami.

Link wouldn't need to leave Miami to participate in the competition.

This was good news.

(End of Chapter)