Conquer America, Start with a Boxing Champion

"Did you see it?"

In the front row of the audience, Eddie Hearn, vice president of Arena Promotions, stared at Link on the ring and said, "In the last game, Link used heavy punches to destroy his opponent's defense, leaving his opponent without any resistance, fully demonstrating his punch weight, speed and offensive ability.

In this game, Link used his superb boxing skills to suppress his opponent and forced his opponent to surrender in the third round, which also demonstrated his superb boxing skills, superb defensive ability, and control over the rhythm of the game.

This guy doesn't seem to be participating in the Olympics. He treats the Olympic Games as a personal show runway to show his abilities. What an interesting guy."

"Really?"

Dmitry Salita thought about it and felt that what Eddie Hearn said made sense.

"What does Link want to do?"

"It's not hard to guess. This guy is showing off his muscles in the game to attract more attention, dominate the signing, and get more signing money. According to the current situation, this guy has a great chance to win the 69kg championship. If he really does it, it will be difficult to impress him with a signing fee of $5 million."

Eddie Hearn frowned.

"Should we raise the price?"

Salita asked.

This question made Eddie Hearn frown even tighter.

Link deliberately showed his strength in the arena in order to arouse everyone's competition so that he can profit from it.

If he doesn't raise the price, Link will be signed by his competitors, that's for sure.

But if he raises the price, how much can he impress Link? This is a problem.

Another problem is that signing an amateur boxer with $5 million is risky. If he continues to raise the price, the risk will be even greater.

Whether to take unknown risks depends on how much they think of Link and whether they are willing to take risks for Link.

Eddie Hearn pinched his brows. He believed that he was not the only one who was worried at this time. Nora Dua and Bob Arum were probably thinking about this problem too.

——

After the game, Link did not leave the stadium immediately. He sat in the audience and watched the other eight finalists.

Unexpectedly, he saw an old acquaintance, the Cuban boxer Lenlozo Aragon.

Aragon's opponent in this game was the Bulgarian boxer Todorov.

Todorov and Aragon both participated in the 57kg competition at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. At that Olympics, Aragon met Floyd Mayweather in the quarter-finals.

After three rounds of competition, Mayweather defeated Aragon by 1 point, which was also the first time that the US team defeated the Cuban team in the Olympic boxing event since 1976.

Mayweather also became famous because of that game.

But the good times didn't last long. In the semi-finals, Mayweather met the Bulgarian boxer Todorov, and lost to his opponent by 1 point, winning only a bronze medal.

Eight years later, it is interesting that these two boxers who had been entangled with Mayweather stood on the boxing ring and became opponents.

After the game started, Aragon took the lead in attacking, using superb guerrilla tactics to harass his opponent constantly, while his opponent did a good job in offense and defense, playing steadily and not giving Aragon a chance to sneak attack.

In the first round, 9:8, Todorov temporarily led.

In the second round, Aragon accelerated the frequency of attack, and his two fists took turns to attack. His fighting style suddenly became strong. At 87 seconds in the second round, Aragon hit the opponent's effective parts with two consecutive punches.

When the opponent was ready to counterattack, Aragon wandered around, not confronting his opponent head-on, and delayed the time until the end.

The score of this round was 8:7.

The score of both sides was 16:15, and Aragon led his opponent by one point.

After the third round began, Aragon used defense as the main method. He retreated when the enemy advanced, harassed when the enemy stayed, attacked when the enemy was tired, and chased when the enemy retreated. He used guerrilla tactics very skillfully.

And his opponent Todorov was not a soft persimmon. Seeing that the game was about to end, he gave up defense and took the initiative to fight Aragon.

In the second half, both sides punched hundreds of times in a row, and the fight was hard to tell. The situation was fierce.

The score of this round was 10:9, and Todorov was in the lead.

The score of both sides was tied.

In the fourth round, Aragon continued to use guerrilla tactics and kept harassing Todorov.

Todorov played a defensive counterattack. Perhaps because he consumed too much in the third round, Todorov did not do as well as in the first round in this round. There were obvious flaws in his defense, which were also discovered by Aragon.

Aragon was quick-eyed and quick-handed. He attacked quickly and hit the opponent's effective parts three times in a row.

In this round, Aragon won with a clear advantage.

In the end, the two sides ended the game with 35 to 31.

Aragon won and entered the semi-finals.

Aragon looked towards Link as he stepped down from the stage, with fighting intent in his eyes.

Link nodded with a smile, and followed the coaching team to leave the competition site.

The quarter-finals ended, and the four boxers who entered the semi-finals were Link, Kazakh boxer Atyayev, Russian boxer Saitov, and Cuban boxer Aragon.

Judging from the strength, no matter which opponent he meets in the next round, it will be more difficult to defeat the opponent than in the first two games.

But don't worry, he was able to defeat Aragon last time, and he can do it this time as well.

After the game, Link returned to the Olympic Village to rest. Under the arrangement of the coaching staff, he was interviewed by reporters from multiple media in the conference room, asking him about the relevant events, whether he was under a lot of pressure in the game, and whether he was sure of his success. Winning a medal in boxing or something like that.

——

"Link, are you feeling a little tired?"

Coach Li Yabing asked after leaving the conference room.

"Fortunately, I can adjust."

Link said with his pockets in his pocket.

I am a little tired, mainly mentally.

During the game, the spirit is in a highly tense state, coupled with the mobilization of the atmosphere on the scene, it is easy to make people excited.

Once the game is over, without external stimulation, it is inevitable that you will be mentally exhausted and unable to cheer up.

For ordinary athletes, this state will affect the game state and lead to abnormal performance during the game.

But Link has experienced too many things in the past, including participating in five consecutive Olympic Games, three world tours, participating in campaigns, using iron and blood to suppress political opponents, and finally venturing into outer space.

These things are more exciting than playing games.

So now even if he is a little tired, he can adjust quickly.

"One more thing. The Sports Bureau asked me to talk to you and listen to your opinions. They will tell you personally later."

Coach Li Yabing said hesitantly.

Coach Li was talking about advertising endorsements.

Ever since the first gold medal was awarded in the Olympic Games, champion athletes have been favored by advertising companies. In order to pursue the popularity during the Olympic Games, many companies will arrange advertising endorsements for the champions as soon as they step off the podium.

The same goes for this Olympics. As of today, the Chinese sports delegation has won 11 gold medals. The advertisements of Guo Jinjing, Wu Mingxia, Tian Liang and others who won the gold medals on the first day have been repeatedly broadcast on many domestic TV stations.

And Link is not only an Olympic champion, but also a popular singer with handsome appearance.

Brand owners and advertising agencies will naturally not let him go.

It's just that he is an athlete now and represents the national team. There are differences in the team over the sharing of advertising fees.

The distribution mechanism of athletes’ advertising endorsement fees is relatively complex and involves multiple stakeholders.

The current distribution ratio is that athletes receive 50% of the total endorsement fee, the coaching team receives 15%, the sports association to which the athlete belongs receives 15%, and the National Sports Administration, as the manager of the athletes, has the right to receive 20%.

The point of disagreement is how much endorsement fee Link should receive.

Link is a sports university student who trained at the university before May. He does not fully belong to the national team management system, nor is he fully an athlete trained by the national team or provincial team. There are also competitions he participated in in this Olympics. Four projects.

Another point is that he is also a popular singer, more famous than being an Olympic champion.

This also leads to the above not knowing how to distribute the endorsement fees.

If given too much, other athletes may become mentally unbalanced.

If I give him less, I worry that his mind will be unbalanced, which will affect subsequent games.

Therefore, before formally negotiating with him, the bureau arranged for coach Li Yabing to communicate with him and ask him what he thought.

Coach Li Yabing said that no matter what idea he has, he can bring it up. Everything will be based on him and the game as the priority.

Link nodded slightly, not too concerned about this kind of thing.

On the one hand, advertising and endorsement fees don’t make much money, much less than boxing matches. It makes sense to give part of it to the National Sports Administration to support the country’s sports construction.

On the other hand, relying on these advertisements can also increase his popularity. In the future, his popularity can also be converted into money, so he will not suffer any loss.

Link asked coach Li Yabing how much the current Olympic champion’s endorsement fee was and what advertisements he mainly endorsed.

After understanding it, he agreed to follow the original distribution ratio, that is, only take 50% of the endorsement fee, but he had three opinions.

First does not endorse liquor, medicines, feminine products, baby milk powder, etc., but only endorses more serious products.

The second one endorses a product with an advertising fee of more than 2 million, to prevent too many endorsements, and it will be troublesome to shoot advertisements.

The maximum broadcast period of the third TV advertisement shall not exceed half a year.

This is relatively common. Generally, advertisements shot by Olympic champions are played most frequently before and after the Olympics. After a month or two after the Olympics, the popularity drops, and the relevant advertisements will also be removed.

His suggestion of no more than half a year is not too much.

"Is the endorsement fee of 2 million too high?"

The endorsement fees of current Olympic champions range from 500,000 to 1 million, and the endorsement time is as long as one or two years.

Link only agreed to endorse for half a year, and the endorsement fee would be more than 2 million.

Is there any wrongdoer willing to ask him to speak for himself?

"Others get 500,000 to 1 million for a gold medal, but I guarantee a gold medal. 2 million is not much."

Link smiled and said that he found that his knife was much duller after being reborn.

Originally, the contract promotion company dared to offer 100 million U.S. dollars, but if the advertising endorsement was less than 20 million U.S. dollars, he would not accept it.

The current quotation is only 5 million US dollars, and the advertising endorsement is only 2 million yuan.

"Okay, I will report it to the superiors. It's up to them to decide how to deal with it. You have a good rest and concentrate on the game. Don't think too much about other things."

Coach Li Yabing remembered that he was just a mouthpiece and had no decision-making power or even the right to make suggestions. No matter how much he talked, it was useless, so he simply stopped talking and left the problem to the superiors.

Link said nothing more and returned to the room to rest.

A day later, Link returned to the ancient Olympia Stadium to participate in the men's javelin throw competition.

The javelin competition is similar to the shot put event.

In the first round, each person has three chances to decide the top eight.

The top eight will enter the second round and get three more chances.

The results of the six throws are valid. If the best results are the same, the second highest result will be used to determine the ranking.

Link has been practicing shot put since high school, and has been practicing javelin for less than a year. His best result was 83.35 meters when he participated in the Olympic trials in early February.

After training for more than half a year, he was tested before the game and his best result was 85.64 meters. There was some improvement, but not much.

After the game started, Link appeared in the 8th place, and his best result in three throws was 85.85 meters. He ranked fourth in the first round and successfully entered the next round of the competition and got three chances.

The first throw in the second round was not very good, and he only threw 83.47 meters.

The second throw found his touch and threw 85.95 meters, creating a personal best.

The third throw was normal, throwing 86.02 meters, and strongly ascended to the first place.

Only in this round, Norwegian male javelin thrower Andreas Thorkildsen performed exceptionally well. After ranking eighth in the first round, he threw 86.50 meters in the first throw of the second round.

In the end, Andreas Thorkildsen won the gold medal in this event.

Link won a silver medal.

Latvian athlete Vaslevski ranked third with a score of 84.95 meters.

Although Link only won a silver medal, it was also the best result achieved by Chinese athletes in this event, which was a groundbreaking achievement.

Link won 1 gold and 1 silver in the track and field event, creating a new history for the Chinese team and also making him more famous at home and abroad.