Chapter 116: Fighting Tyson

While he was preparing for the competition, Taylor's second album "Fearless" was also released.

It topped the Billboard 200 album chart with 650,000 copies sold in the first week and became a huge hit.

Whether on the street, in the supermarket, or on the radio and TV, you can hear songs from "Fearless", including "The Way I Loved You", "You Belong With Me", "Love Story", etc., as well as the temporarily added "Dream It Possible".

After the release, six songs were on the top ten of the Billboard singles chart, and "Dream It Possible" directly topped the singles chart, becoming Taylor's first champion single.

The album sales were hot, and Taylor was busy as a result. She often flew to other places for publicity, held autograph sessions, prepared for concert tours, etc.

Usually, Link could only contact her by phone. Sometimes, Taylor was busy with work again after a few words on the phone.

Link couldn't help but think of a famous saying: It's hard to be a famous woman, and it's even harder to be a famous woman's boyfriend.

He continued to train in the boxing ring.

From the end of the Olympics to December, through more than three months of strength and speed training, the weight of the right fist was increased to 1600 pounds, the weight of the left fist was increased to 1420, and the body reaction ability was slightly improved.

However, according to Dino's gossip, Tyson has also been strengthening training in recent months, and his fist weight has returned to more than 1600 pounds. His condition is no worse than before 2003, so Link should be careful.

Link will naturally not be careless.

Tyson is a veteran boxing champion. In the boxing world of the 1980s and 1990s, when there were many fierce generals, he could become the spokesperson of boxing with his fists. His strength, speed, technology, tactics, and boxing awareness are all at an extremely high level.

Even though he is old, he is still a fierce old beast, not to mention that the opponent weighs more than 60 pounds more than him.

In order to deal with Tyson's game, he put down all his work, even the promotion of the single was postponed, and he was focused on retreating in the training ground.

On December 15, the match between Link and Tyson was held at the Thompson Entertainment City in Atlantic City.

Before the match, Thompson Entertainment carried out a lot of publicity and promotion for this match, from advertisements to newspapers to the big screen in Times Square, there were related news publicity.

Thompson Entertainment claimed that this match was a "world-class battle", and it was the third unequal battle in 2008 after Holyfield vs. Valuev and Pacquiao vs. De La Hoya.

The inequality here refers to the weight. Tyson is more than 60 pounds heavier than Link, Valuev is 100 pounds heavier than Holyfield, and De La Hoya is a welterweight, 5 pounds heavier than Pacquiao who just moved up.

But in terms of overall influence, the match between De La Hoya and Pacquiao received more attention. The match took place on December 7 in Las Vegas. After 8 rounds of competition, Pacquiao defeated De La Hoya by TKO.

The prize money for this match was as high as 100 million US dollars. In the end, Pacquiao took 65 million US dollars and De La Hoya got 35 million, surpassing the highest record of 65 million US dollars created by Tyson and Holyfield in 1997, becoming the highest appearance fee in the current boxing match.

It is much higher than the 10 million of Link and Tyson.

However, in terms of influence, Link and Tyson are not much worse than the two.

Tyson is a boxing legend in the past and a spokesperson for boxing. Link is an Olympic champion and a boxing star ranked in the top ten in the world boxing popularity at this stage.

Any match between the two will be sought after by boxing fans, let alone the fight between the two.

Boxing fans want to see how much strength Tyson has left after retiring for three years? Can he continue to fight in the boxing world?

Everyone also wants to see how Link, the overlord of the super middleweight field, performs when he meets a heavyweight boxer who is more than 60 pounds heavier than him? How many rounds can he last?

The Chicago Tribune listed the advantages and disadvantages of Link and Tyson in detail.

For example, Link won in terms of speed, physical strength, and endurance.

Tyson won in terms of heavy punches, ability to withstand blows, and competition experience.

The two tied in terms of technology and tactics.

Finally, it was concluded that Link had a 45% chance of winning and Tyson had a 55% chance of winning, with Tyson having a slight advantage.

On the Atlantic City bookmaker side, Link's odds of winning were 1:1.5 and Tyson's odds were 1:1.8. The bookmaker believed that Link had a higher chance of winning, but not by much.

Because the match was full of suspense, many people flew to Atlantic City, New Jersey, on the day of the match to watch the boxing match live.

Ordinary people who did not have the conditions also sat in front of the TV, ready to watch the broadcast of the match.

——

Bang bang bang!

In the VIP lounge, Link was shirtless, wearing red shorts, with bandages on his palms, punching the air non-stop, warming up in this way.

"Link, Tyson has a heavy fist and a strong body. When you play against him, try not to go head-to-head with him in the first three rounds. Use your skills to consume his physical strength first.

After three rounds, his attack will become impatient and his flaws will be exposed. Then you can use your fists to attack him.

According to his current physical condition, I expect you to KO him within six rounds and win the game."

Coach Brooks explained beside him.

Link nodded. Coach Brooks had worked with Tyson for two years and was very familiar with Tyson's condition. With him by his side to give advice, Link was more confident in this game.

"Six rounds? Link, can you KO Tyson in the sixth round?"

Dino asked, leaning against the cabinet with his arms crossed.

"I'm not sure. I'm sure I can beat him, but in which round and in what way, I can't tell you right now."

"Okay! Then I'll blindly bet on the sixth round."

Dino thought for a moment and said.

Link continued to do warm-up training. As he was preparing for the game, a pre-game warm-up performance was going on outside. Tomb International invited Green Day, famous singer Ricky Martin, black soul singer Maisie Gray and others to perform live. .

After several performances, there was a Love Haus men's and women's underwear fashion show, a UFC women's lightweight fighting match, and finally it was Link and Tyson's turn.

“Next, I’ll invite Olympic champion and WBA super middleweight world boxing champion Link Baker!!!”

Hearing the host shouting loudly, Link strode out of the entrance of the tunnel. A bright light was projected on him, and there were bursts of applause and cheers. Link raised his arms and waved, and strode onto the ring.

He noticed that in the auditorium around the boxing ring, there were mostly men and women in gorgeous clothes. The men were in dark suits, and the women were wearing party clothes and furs, as if they were attending a banquet.

There are many familiar faces among them, including Mr. Thompson, Rupert Murdoch, the governor of New Jersey, congressmen, the mayor of New York and other politicians.

There are also boxing elders such as Dua Dua, Bob Arum, WBA Chairman Mendoza, Holyfield, De La Hoya, Riddick Bowe and others.

"Hey, come on Link, I'm optimistic about you."

In the front seat area, an old man in a suit shouted to him.

It's director Woody Allen, and there are several familiar faces sitting next to him, who are also directors in the entertainment industry.

Link waved his fist and strode onto the ring.

When he took the stage, Tyson swaggered in to the cheers of tens of thousands of spectators. He had a bald head, a thick body, strong muscles, black iron-like skin, and many tattoos on his body. He looked several times thicker than Link. Very powerful.

Seeing Tyson appear on the stage, the cheers were even louder. Many elderly people, including director Woody Allen, applauded vigorously. It seemed that watching Tyson play was a kind of emotion.

Tyson kept shaking his fists at the audience under the ring, looking very excited. Finally, at the urging of the referee, he pulled up the rope and went on stage.

"Hello, Mike, how are you today?"

An HBO reporter stopped Tyson at the ring and asked.

"It was great, I felt like I could kill a lion."

Tyson clenched his fists and shouted to Link on the stage, "Hey, Link, I'm going to KO you within three rounds. Are you ready to fail?"

Link looked at him and said with a smile: "Mike, you are the one who should prepare. You are old. If you feel unwell during the game, just give up earlier. Neither I nor anyone else wants to see you." Falling in the ring."

"Link, stop bragging. I'll let you know how big the gap is between us later."

Tyson yelled, pumping his fist.

Link smiled softly and came to the corner of the ring to rest. Coach Brooks lowered his voice and said: "Tyson is in a bit of a state of excitement. He may have used neurotropic drugs. Pay attention during the game. His attacks in the first two rounds will probably be different." Very tyrannical.”

Link nodded.

Drug use is a relatively common occurrence in professional competitions.

For example, meldonium is a drug that treats heart disease. It can promote blood flow and increase the body's oxygen uptake and endurance. It was used on the battlefield to improve the combat effectiveness of soldiers. Now it is taken by tennis, rugby, and boxing athletes.

Link didn't care about this either. As a boxer, what excites him most is to meet a powerful opponent in the game and then use wits and courage to defeat him in various ways.

The stronger the opponent, the harder it is to win, and the rewards of victory are greater, such as Andre Berto, Peters, Aragon, Gadel and others.

So after entering the boxing ring, he was never afraid of meeting strong opponents, only afraid of having no opponents.

Tyson would like it more if he did it this way.