Across America, Starting with the Boxing Champion

 Chapter 377 The End and the Beginning

  The 27th MTV Video Awards Ceremony has concluded.

 Lady Gaga won 7 out of 13 nominations and became the biggest winner of this year’s MTV Awards.

Link was nominated 1 out of 11 times. Although he won the most valuable Video of the Year award, he was still considered the biggest loser of this year because before the awards ceremony, the media predicted that he would win at least four awards, which is the same as Lady Gaga. Evenly matched, but not really.

Eminem won the Best Male Singer Video Award and the Best Rap Song Video Award for his inspirational song "NotAfraid". He was also the second biggest winner of this year's MTV.

Link Music's singers were nominated for 3 out of 19 at this year's MTV Awards, including Best Video of the Year, Best Newcomer for Justin Bieber, and Best Art Direction for Lana Del Rey's "Young and Beautiful" MV.

After the event, the media summarized the three biggest highlights of this year’s MTV Awards.

 The first is that Lady Gaga changed into eight dresses and eight makeup looks on stage, each one more exaggerated than the last.

The second is that the MTV organizer arranged for the former lovers Link and Taylor to be together. The on-site director often pointed the camera at the two of them that day. The total duration was 12 minutes. Among all the guests who did not perform on stage, they got the most shots. people.

 The third one is the award-winning situation that night. Lady Gaga won 7 out of 13, and Link, who was originally invited to compete with her in the ring, got 1 out of 11. Lady Gaga won with an overwhelming advantage.

 But afterwards, many fans expressed dissatisfaction for Lin Ke.

The songs he was nominated for this time include "Legendsneverdie", "Seeyouagain", "Girlslikeyou" and "allofme". They are all hit songs, and the quality of their MVs is also extremely high. Especially the first two songs, which can be called divine songs.

 In the end, I only received one award, which was considered to be a consolation award.

Fans generally believe that the negative news about Link some time ago has affected the evaluation of him by the members of the MTV jury.

This has also triggered discussions among the professional media in the music industry. When selecting music awards, should the quality of a song be measured by professional standards, or should the singer's character be included in the evaluation. Those with good character and few scandals should be included in the selection. , higher probability of winning?

 Selection with a professional perspective is more objective and fair, but professionalism is difficult to determine and there are also some social problems.

As for the investigation of the singer's character, we can only see the singer's state at a certain stage, which can easily lead to unjust, false, and wrongful convictions.

After "Rolling Stone" magazine posed this question, it caused a lot of discussion in the music industry. There are people who support both, but no one can give the optimal solution.

 Link did not pay attention to these disputes, or he did not have time to pay attention to them.

 After the MTV Awards, he returned to South Korea to hold concerts.

　　There have been six concerts in South Korea before, and there are still two remaining, but the tickets are selling so well that every time the tickets for the concert go on sale, they are sold out within a few hours.

 Universal has temporarily proposed adding two more games, leaving four.

Originally, he thought that after two weeks of suspension, the scandal between himself and Jun Ji-hyun would cool down, or that attention would be distracted by other entertainment news.

But as soon as his plane landed at Seoul Airport, the Korean public opinion community was like gasoline ignited by a spark, burning with a bang. The media continued to hype his scandal with Jun Ji-hyun, and by the way, his relationship with other actresses.

　　‘Mr. Linkback, who was named the number one **** in the entertainment industry by Vanity Fair, returned to South Korea today to continue his concert tour. ’

This is a title temporarily added by Seoul Broadcasting Company SBS to the entertainment news of the day.

ˆMajor media such as MBC, KBS, and Peninsula Daily also reported relevant news.

This also resulted in him being surrounded by many Korean media reporters as soon as he got off the plane. When he held a concert later, paparazzi could always be seen around him.

There were too many paparazzi around him. He and Jun Ji-hyun had contacted each other on the phone and planned to have dinner together between concerts.

　　Unable to date Jun Ji-hyun, he temporarily focused on holding concerts.

Hold four consecutive concerts in Seoul, Busan, Daegu and other cities.

When he held a concert in Seoul, the singing guests included Girls’ Generation, T-ara, and 2AM. The finale was his original Korean song “TroubleMaker” co-sung with Girls’ Generation’s leader Kim Taeyeon, which aroused enthusiastic response at the venue.

But afterwards, in the Korean media, not only Kim Taeyeon became his rumored girlfriend, but even the other eight members of Girls' Generation were not spared.

　　The Dong-A Ilbo claimed that a delivery boy with a figure similar to Link entered the Girls' Generation dormitory that night and did not leave all night.

This is of course false news. Although Link went to their dormitory and was invited by Kim Taeyeon and Jessica Jung to visit, he only stayed for half an hour and then left. He didn't stay up all night at all.

During his concert in South Korea, he also made two investments.

 The first is to invest in BigHit Entertainment.

 This company was founded in 2005. The president is the well-known music producer and composer Bang Shi Hyuk. The company is mainly engaged in music production, album distribution, entertainer management, publicity, planning, training and other related activities.

At present, there is only one boy band 2AM, which debuted at the beginning of the year, and the newly established trainee group BTS. It is only a second-tier music company in the Korean music scene, far behind SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, and YG Entertainment.

After talking with President Bang Si Hyuk, Link invested 2 million US dollars, about 2.7 billion won, and got 41% of the shares of BigHit company.

At the same time, he promised to use Link Music’s channels to introduce BigHit’s boy band to the US market in the future.

 The second thing is that after Jun Ji-hyun terminated her contract with SidusHQ brokerage company, she planned to set up a brokerage company to be responsible for her own brokerage affairs.

Link found Quan Zhixian to discuss and prepare to cooperate with her.

 In the end, he invested US$3 million and obtained 49% of the shares of the new agency, as well as Jun Ji-hyun's acting agency contract in the United States. Jun Ji-hyun also became a foreign artist under the Palm Bay Agency.

Jun Ji-hyun’s agency has also changed to ‘J&Baker.Entertainment’. J is Jun, the last name of Jun Ji-hyun, and Baker is Link’s last name.

 Because of this name, the Korean media generally believed that Jun Ji-hyun had become his de facto girlfriend, and the "Asia Daily" claimed that the **** fell under the skirt of his savage girlfriend.

 This is not the case. Jun Ji-hyun is a relatively independent woman, and the most intimate action between the two at this stage is just holding hands.

 After the world tour in South Korea, he flew to Japan to continue his concerts.

Due to the downturn in Japan's economic situation in recent years and the serious solidification of social classes, the six major consortiums strictly control all profitable industries. It is more difficult for outsiders to make big money here than in the United States.

  There are no good investment projects, so he concentrated on holding concerts after arriving in Japan.

 Whenever I have time, I go to the Baker Villa in Minato District, Tokyo, chat, take a walk, and have fun with Nozomi Sasaki-chan.

This villa is a top-notch mansion he purchased for US$8 million. It is not far from Tokyo Bay, Roppongi, Tokyo Tower, and the U.S. Embassy. It is also the most famous wealthy area in Japan. The people who live here are either rich or not. It's expensive, and the security situation is first-rate.

Link also acquired this property because of his status as an international celebrity.

After the two lived together, Mr. Yasue Tahara obtained Nozomi Sasaki’s agency contract through connections and returned it, along with a compensation of US$500,000.

 After negotiation, Link and Sasaki Nozomi jointly invested 1.2 million US dollars to acquire a brand underwear company, founded Sasaki Nozomi's high-end underwear brand, and sent her father to Brazil to grow cocoa.

Occasionally, Shinheng Yui-chan will come over and chat about music and cook Japanese food together.

Although he keeps a low profile, scandals about him have never stopped in the Japanese media. First, they reported on his relationship with Japan’s new national goddess Nozomi Sasaki, claiming that the two were living together, but neither of them came forward to clarify this.

After the news was exposed, Japanese netizens were very angry. Some people went to the Tokyo subway station to hold up placards to protest, calling on everyone to boycott Link's concert. Others made their own Molotov cocktails and tried to blow up Link's commercial vehicle during his performance.

However, Japanese media later reported that the "national daughter-in-law" Yui Shinheng was also in close contact with Link, which was confirmed by Yui Shinheng's ex-boyfriend Ryo Nishikido.

Ryo Nishikido claimed that in August, Yui Shinheng was sent to China by the company to teach Lin Ke Japanese. The two fell in love over time. Yui Shinheng broke up with him soon after returning, claiming that the two had already lived together. .

 Japanese netizens were even more angry when they heard the news. First, the national goddess was slept with, and then the national daughter-in-law was slept with. Link Baker went too far.

Angry male netizens set up a website to strongly demand that the authorities cancel all of Link's concerts in Japan.

But this was denied by Yui-chan’s management company, Johnny & Associates.

 The relationship between Ryo Daiichi Nishikido and Yui Shinheng is just an ordinary colleague, there is no relationship, and there is no breakup.

The second Shinheng Yui is a partnership with Link, and is also a guest performer at Link's Tokyo concert.

Due to work relationships, the two will have some contact, but it is just a working relationship. Johnny's said that the two parties have jointly created a new song "Good Time" and recently created a song "Listen", which will be performed at Link's Tokyo Giant. Live performance at Egg Stadium Concert.

 The third Shinheng Yui and Sasaki Nozomi are close friends. Yui-chan went to Sasaki Nozomi's villa and was invited by her, not on a date with Link.

Japanese fans are skeptical about the remarks made by Johnny & Associates.

Later, Yui-chan came forward to explain in person, saying that she and Link are good friends, a fan of Link, and like his songs very much. She went to meet Link mainly to help Link master Japanese, and also to create new songs together, which did not exist. other relationships.

　　Everyone saw that Yui-chan was still so pure and sweet, so they believed her words.

　　It’s just that fans were worried and left messages on her Twitter, hoping that she would stay away from Link after the concert. That guy is a playboy.

But Yui-chan replied below that Link is a man of good character, not a playboy, and praised Link for being talented, humorous, and a first-class good man.

Fans were very anxious to see her so innocent. They left messages telling her that Link had more than ten girlfriends in the United States and around the world. He was called the number one scumbag in Hollywood by American magazines such as "Vanity Fair" and was definitely not a good man.

Yui-chan originally wanted to defend Link, but her manager stopped her and asked her not to argue with fans.

This defense is nothing. Link has 16 concerts in Japan, held in Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe and other cities. The number of viewers at each concert was more than 30,000. The audience at the Tokyo Dome was 65,000. .

 Sixteen concerts sold a total of more than 800,000 tickets, and the revenue from this alone exceeded US$40 million.

During the concert, "Goodtime" and "Listen" jointly sung by Link and Yui-chan successively ranked No. 1 on the Japanese Oricon Chart after their release, with sales of 450,000 and 620,000 copies respectively in the first week.

In addition, during his tour in Japan, his three albums sold 1.32 million copies. Among them, the third album once again topped the Oricon weekly sales list after more than three months.

With his handsome appearance, strong and **** figure, strong stage performance and beautiful voice, Link has caused a wave of 'Link fever' throughout Japan, attracting the admiration and admiration of countless Japanese, and was also selected by "Women" "Self", "Nikkan Sports" and other magazines rated him as "the most attractive male of the year".

  —

 At the beginning of October, the Asia tour of the world tour ended.

The Asian tour lasted for nearly three months. He held 48 concerts in 37 cities and sold a total of 2.67 million tickets. He became the European and American singer who sold the most tickets in Asia in the past ten years. The previous one was MJ.

 During this period, the sales of his three albums doubled in Asia, with sales of approximately 4.2 million copies, a remarkable achievement.

 Conservative estimates put Link’s net income from this Asian tour at about US$120 million. The income sources include ticket sharing, appearance fees, album sales sharing, single sales sharing, concert video sharing, advertising endorsements, photo albums, etc.

  The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and other large media also used extremely gorgeous words to praise his trip to Asia.

He said that he conquered the hearts of countless fans in Asia with his beautiful songs, superb singing skills, strong stage performance, outstanding creative and learning abilities, and strong personal charm, calling this the beginning of his becoming a world-class superstar.

"People Magazine", "Newsweek", "Vanity Fair", "GQ" and other publications have successively used his photos as covers, saying that he has ushered in a new life after surviving the dark wave of public opinion in September. He is also the international music and fashion circle in August and September. , sports world, pop culture circle, the most influential man.

Of course, some tabloids secretly said that his trip to Asia was a "girl pick-up trip", referring to some female stars who had only worked with him once or met him once.

 Asian female singers including Girls' Generation, Tara, Sun Yanzi, Liang Jingjun, Jolin Tsai, Wang Fei, etc. are said to be his rumored girlfriends, which has led to a surge in the number of his rumored girlfriends, from more than ten to dozens to hundreds.

 Link didn’t care much about this accusation.

After experiencing the online violence in early September, netizens seemed to have suddenly gotten tired of it and lost interest in his scandals. They no longer paid attention to how many rumored girlfriends he had, but were more concerned about when his next album would be released and his next boxing match. When will it be held and when will the next new movie be released.

Without the worries of scandals, Link can concentrate on training in the boxing gym to prepare for the boxing competition at the end of the year. He can also have more time and energy to prepare for the role of "Captain America".

"Link, this is your boxing match schedule for next year. Take a look. If there is no problem, I will go to Anna to discuss and arrange a specific time."

 Assistant Simon handed over a document.

“It’s only October, how can we start arranging the competition for next year?”

 In the boxing ring, Link took off his gloves and asked.

"The main reason is that you are too busy. Anna said that you will work a lot next year and have almost no time to rest. She wants us to come up with the boxing match schedule in advance and arrange your schedule in advance to avoid time conflicts."

Simon shrugged his shoulders and smiled.

“Every time I see you arranging my time very full, I have no sense of expectation for next year.”

Link opened the folder and looked at it. There will be five boxing matches next year, the first two of which are super middleweight title defense matches.

In order to improve the viewing experience of the super middleweight competition, starting next year, the four major boxing organizations WBA-WBC-IBF-WBO will hold a battle for the title of boxing challenger in advance, and the top two will be qualified to challenge Link.

 Originally there was one quota, but in order to give more people a chance, the quota was changed to two games.

 In the light heavyweight division, it is tentatively scheduled for three matches.

 The first match was against WBA light heavyweight champion Beirut Shumenov.

Beirut is a native of Kazakhstan. He debuted in 2007. His current professional record is 10 fights, 9 wins, 1 loss, and 6 KO wins. He is also the person who became the light heavyweight world champion in the fewest games. This record is 9 games, and he is nicknamed 'Kazakh. Stan Dark Horse'.

The strength is pretty good and the playing style is very strong.

Last year, after he won the WBA light heavyweight belt from Spanish boxing champion Campillo, he successfully defended the title once in March.

 The disadvantage is that he is too little famous, and his popularity in the American boxing circle is not even comparable to that of Mario.

The reason why the other party accepted his challenge was because they wanted to gain higher fame and appearance fees by defeating him, a superstar.

 Plans for the second and third games are undecided.

If he wins in Beirut, arrange for him to directly challenge the boxing champions of the remaining three organizations, WBC boxing champion Bernard Hopkins, IBF boxing champion Chad Dawson, and WBO boxing champion Nathan Cleaver profit.

If the three boxing champions are still unwilling to challenge, they can qualify as challengers through the Champion Challenge. After obtaining the title of challenger, the boxing champion of the organization has only two options, one is to challenge, and the other is to automatically give up the gold belt.

These five games are the plan for next year.

 There are just some problems with the arrangement of the competition venue.

Simon said that since he became popular in Asia, companies and tourism companies from China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand and other places have been fighting for the right to host his competition.

 The basic quotation now exceeds US$20 million per game after tax.

Link thought for a while and said, there are many people in China and the market potential is great, so we can consider that side first.

 Simon nodded and wrote it down.

Link asked again about Dynasty Sports Agency. In July, Dynasty Promotion succeeded in its first round of financing. Its market value increased from US$120 million to US$200 million. A new management team was established, and the company's name was also changed from Dynasty Promotion. Cheng Dynasty Sports.

 Taking into account Link's contribution to the company, his shares remained unchanged at 30% after the financing, making him still the company's second largest shareholder.

 At present, the company has four professional boxers and six other types of athletes, including niche sports such as badminton, tennis, and ice hockey.

When signing athletes, Link also thought about recommending several boxers to the company.

 But the last one he recommended, Little Joe Smith, had experienced 12 professional matches after joining the main event company, with 7 wins, 4 losses and 1 draw, which was a lot worse than the boxing champion Little Joe Smith he remembered.

It was then that he realized that if a boxer wants to become a boxing champion, it does not mean that he can grow according to his original trajectory by signing him and arranging matches for him.

 In fact, if a boxer wants to become a boxing champion, he cannot do without the help of coaches and sparring partners, the promotion of agents and brokerage companies, and the boxer's on-the-spot performance in the boxing ring.

  With the change of coaches, sparring partners and agents, the original boxing champion may become a second-rate boxer.

After seeing Joe Smith Jr.’s record, he doesn’t plan to continue recommending new players, lest he do bad things with good intentions.

"Link, have you ever paid attention to the Professional Wrestling League's games? They want to invite you to be the presenter on site, without having to compete, and the appearance fee is 3 million US dollars."

 Simon took back the folder and said.

"WWE? If I were invited to participate in a wrestling match, I would be a little interested."

Link said.

“I’m afraid this won’t work. Although there are scripts for WWE matches, you have not received relevant training. You may easily get injured if you participate in such matches. You will also be filming a movie in the near future.”

 Simon advised.

Link nodded and accepted Simon's advice.

He is not worried about injury. The main reason is that the WWE series lasts for a long time and he does not have time to participate. However, he can also be an award guest and earn some pocket money on the way.

 After Simon left, he continued to train in the ring.

Mario came over midway, but he only watched him train from a distance and did not come to harass him like before.

Since the media revealed in September that he is worth more than one billion, people around him, including Mario, Dino, Simon and others, have become more reserved when dealing with him, and they are not as casual as before, which makes him feel Very boring.

 Although he is now a billionaire, his circle is still the same and has not been upgraded.

If the people in the original circle ignore him, he will really become a loner.

He waved at Mario and called him to come over for a fight. Mario handed it over hesitantly, put on his gloves and walked onto the ring.

 Compared to the first half of the year, Mario's belly is a little deflated, but the overall weight does not seem to have decreased much, and his strength has not increased much. It is still at a level that can only take one or two critical hits from him.

 In order to help him regain his confidence, Link put away some of his punches and sparred with him for more than an hour.

　　Bang! Bang bang bang!

 (End of this chapter)