Chapter 12 : The Game Begins

After confirming his participation in the Golden Gloves Championship, Link devoted more time to training.

  The Golden Gloves Championship is a good publicity platform. During the competition, major boxing promotion companies will also focus on the competition and select potential newcomers for training, similar to a talent show and beauty pageant.

  Link not only wants to get good results in the competition, but also wants to show his great potential so that several major promotion companies will come to him with checks to cooperate with him.

  The better he performs, the more signing bonus he will get, so he wants to give it a try.

During the training period, the Miami International Beach Music Festival was held at the Hard Rock Stadium. During the five days before and after the festival, country music singers from the United States, Canada, and Europe performed at the festival.

  According to the Miami Herald, a total of 214 singers signed up for this beach music festival, which attracted a total of 1.241 million tourists and was very lively.

  After training every day, Link would go to several branch venues to listen to singers perform live and watch them play the guitar.

Sometimes he would invite Taylor along, but she was too busy with performances, and Mrs. Andrea intentionally or unintentionally isolated the two of them, so the two of them met very few times during the music festival.

  When they were walking on the street together a few days ago, he thought they were in love, but after not seeing each other for a few days, they seemed to have returned to being just ordinary friends.

  After hearing this, James laughed three times and said that he had expected it and that the two were not of the same kind at all.

Link didn't care about being depressed, because the Golden Gloves Championship was about to begin. If he wanted to gain a foothold in the American boxing world where there were so many talented people, he had to show enough eye-catching strength.

  Bang, bang, bang!

  Link clenched his fists and hit the rubber dartboard with all his might. He only had hand bandages on his hands. After two hours of practice, his T-shirt was soaked with sweat and stuck to his sturdy back, with obvious lumps.

After more than ten days of training in the boxing gym, his muscles became stronger and stronger. His pectoralis major, scapulae, biceps, and abdominal muscles were all bulging with clear lines, as if they were cast in iron.

  Mario often advised him to eat more meat, retain more fat, and have a stronger waist. A boxer is not a bodybuilder, and having a good figure is useless. A boxer's opponents are men, not women.

  Link naturally wouldn't listen to him.

  This is the Internet age. A handsome, strong and sexy boxer can definitely attract more attention and traffic, and earn more tickets, ratings and competition bonuses.

So for boxers, handsome looks and a strong body are also a kind of soft power.

  "Link, take a break. We'll be exhausted if we continue."

  Mario sat on the ground, gasping for breath, sweat all over the floor.

  "Yeah, Link, the competition is about to start, don't try too hard, be careful not to get hurt."

  Reggie was also wiping his sweat, his arms resting on the ground and shaking.

  "You guys take a break and practice for a while."

  Link continued punching.

"Link, you can't do this. You are so good and you train so hard. How can we take a break? If West sees us, he will yell at us for being lazy."

  Mario said with a bitter face.

  Reggie nodded frantically.

  Before Link came, everyone trained for three or four hours a day and felt that was enough. After training, everyone went to the bar to pick up girls or to the beach to play in the water. Every day was fulfilling and satisfying.

  The atmosphere in the museum is also very harmonious.

  After Link joined the boxing gym, the atmosphere in the gym changed completely.

Link trains more than six hours a day, which is more than twice the amount of everyone else's training. When everyone sees Link, whose punches weigh 1,400 pounds, still training hard, who can rest in peace?

  Now everyone trains with Link every day. He trains for six hours, and everyone also trains for six hours. If we practice one hour less, we will feel anxious and feel very degenerate.

  But training for six hours a day was too intense. When I got home from training every day, my back and legs ached and I didn't want to do anything except sleep. I didn't even have the energy to pick up girls.

  These days are so hard.

Mario gritted his teeth and held on for a week, feeling that life was worse than death.

  But he couldn't stop.

  Link, a boxing champion, is training hard, but he is so much worse than Link, but he is lying on the ground to rest. How is that different from self-degradation?

  Mario is now facing a dilemma. Should he persist? He can't persist, his body can't bear it; give up? He is unwilling to do so, his soul is uneasy.

  On one side is the body, and on the other side is the soul. He doesn't know what to do, so he can only find a way to solve the problem from the person who caused the problem, that is, Link.

"Hey, Link, do you want to pick up girls? How about I introduce you to some hot girls? I guarantee they have hot bodies."

  Mario said with a wicked grin, showing his white teeth.  

  Golden Reggie also nodded in agreement, "Link, it's true. Although Mario looks scary, he is very good at playing. He has a lot of hot chicks' contact information in his phone. What kind of girls do you like? White, black, and red skinned girls are all available. As long as you name it, he can find it."

  "What do you mean I look scary? We all Mexicans look like this."

Mario raised his big nose and said with dissatisfaction and a fierce look on his face.

  "cough!"

  West came over and glared at the two of them, "If you two don't want to train, you can go outside and go shopping or hang out at a bar. Don't disturb Link's training here."

  Mario and Reggie looked at each other, pouted, and continued to punch despite the pain. It's not that they didn't want to go shopping, but thinking that Link was still training, there was no point in shopping.

"Link, we have a competition tomorrow. You should train two hours less today and pay more attention to rest."

  West said in a gentle voice.

  He was very satisfied with Link. Link was not only talented, smart, and down-to-earth, but also very hardworking.

After he came, the boxers and apprentices in the gym trained consciously without the need for supervision.

These days were the most relaxing time for him since he started working.

  "Okay, I'll pay attention."

  Link nodded.

  After West left, Link continued training.

"Hey, Link, you just said you wanted to rest, why are you still training?"

  Mario said angrily, clenching his fists.

  "I'm not tired, why should I rest?"

  Link looked at him strangely. Compared to pushing carts in the mines and working hard in the underground casinos in the past, the training now was so much easier.

  He felt his strength and speed quietly increasing during training every day, and the feeling was so fulfilling that he couldn't stop at all.

  Bang! Link continued his training.

  Mario was going crazy.

  Is this guy human?

"Mario, stop talking. As long as you don't die from training, then train until you die."

  Reggie roared, clenched his fists, and punched the sandbag wildly.

  Mario sighed softly, but could only endure the pain and continue punching the stiff boxing target with his fists.

  What will happen to this day?

  On June 3, the regional competition of the Golden Gloves Championship opened.

This year, a total of 112 boxers in Miami signed up to participate. Link weighed 77.5 kilograms and filled in the super middleweight competition.

There were 15 super middleweights in total, so it was not difficult.

The game was held in a small court at the Heat's American Airlines Arena. There were no spectators except the referee.

The game was very simple, a two-on-two fight, and the No. 15 pick would automatically advance to the next round.

  Link was lucky and drew the 15th pick in the first round, automatically advancing.

  In the second round, he drew number 1 and fought one round with his opponent, knocking him down three times in a row. In amateur competitions, both sides wear protective gear, so the damage after being knocked down is not great.

But according to amateur competition rules, being knocked down three times in a row means that there is a big gap in strength between the two sides. The referee will interrupt the game and rule that the fallen party loses the game.

  Link easily advanced to the third round.

  There were four people left in the third round, fighting against each other. Link knocked down his opponent three times in one round and advanced to the next round.

  He continued to work hard in the fourth round, knocking down his opponent three times in one round and easily qualifying for the state championship.

  It's just that his performance in the game was too terrifying, and he killed the game in one round.

Someone took a picture of him and sent it to a chat group for boxing fans, asking everyone to be careful of him, saying that he was a cold-blooded and terrifying slugger with extremely heavy punches, and no one could last a whole round against him.

  This news was supported by several victims. They had a heated discussion in the group, what should they do next time they meet him?

The result of the discussion was that there was no way, because he not only had a heavy punch, but was also very fast and had good defense. There was simply no way to deal with him.

  His fellow super middleweights were wailing, thinking it was such misfortune to meet such a powerful colleague.

Link's amateur competition results: 3 wins, 3 KOs

  (End of this chapter)