Domination in America, Starting from being a Boxing Champion
Chapter 926 - 650 Negative News
During the preparation for the match, Director Wang Xiaoshuai called and said he was planning to take his new film "Shanghai Dreams" to the Cannes Film Festival and asked if Link wanted to go with him.
Link said the match date was set, coinciding with early May, and he didn't have time to go. Moreover, he only had two to three minutes of screen time in "Shanghai Dreams," and attending the festival might make people think he was just there to ride on the red carpet's fame.
Director Wang Xiaoshuai expressed regret upon learning about his match. He had thought Link, who spoke French, could help as a translator if he went.
Link put away his phone and continued training at the boxing arena.
He was currently training at the national boxing team training base.
Training here was arranged by the National Sports Bureau, hoping he could train there and also provide guidance to other boxers on the team. Since he had become a professional boxer, he could no longer represent the country in the Olympics or other amateur competitions.
For future boxing events, they'd still rely on Zou Shiming, Wang Xiaoping, Zhang Zhilei, and others.
Therefore, the National Sports Bureau hoped he could act as a coach while training, helping cultivate more boxing champions for the national team.
Link did not refuse. Before his career change, leaders from the National Sports Bureau had discussed this matter with him, and he agreed at the time. Now he couldn't go back on his word.
His method of guiding several boxers was simple. Every time he came to train, he would let them take turns sparring with him, wearing protective gear for matches against him. Regardless of their rank—whether heavyweight or lightweight—he had ways to give pointers.
Initially, several heavyweight and super heavyweight boxers in the team were dismissive of his guidance, believing the style of heavyweight boxing was different from middleweight and didn't recognize him much.
This kind of attitude was easy to deal with. Link had those heavyweight boxers wear protective gear and spar with him as if it were a real match, encouraging them to give their all. If they could manage to knock him down, he offered a reward of 100,000.
In the end, those boxers took turns stepping into the ring, but none could last even a single round against him. Even while wearing ocean foam protective gear, they were beaten to the point of dizziness, unable to get up from the ground.
Thus, Link became an overnight legend, widely recognized as the most powerful fighter among all the athletes on the national team.
After convincing everyone through sheer strength, nobody in the boxing team dared to give him attitude anymore.
As for these teammates, Link didn't teach everyone. First, he didn't have the time, nor the patience. Second, many of them were mediocre in skill and lazy, cutting corners during training as if he were pushing them to train instead. Guiding people like this wasn't meaningful to him.
Link specifically picked around ten male and female boxers of different ranks to mentor, pinpoint their issues, and train them.
However, he spent most of his time training in a private boxing arena at Dayang Mountain Forest Park. The place was quieter, with fewer distractions, making it easier to focus and accelerate his progress.
In late April, Link flew to Las Vegas to prepare for the World Boxing Champion Challenger Qualification Match.
Prior to the match, the organizers and promotional companies on both sides launched extensive publicity campaigns to capture the attention of boxing fans and boost ticket and pay-per-view sales.
Since Link was a Chinese boxer and his fighting style often involved knocking out or injuring opponents, he appeared somewhat violent.
As a result, the U.S. media's portrayal of him painted him as a villain—a boxer who liked bullying weaker opponents and deliberately sought to incapacitate them.
Moreover, some media outlets fabricated stories, claiming he, as a Chinese national, owed his consistent victories and exceptional ability in the ring to secret physical modifications conducted by a mysterious Chinese research department that turned him into a cyborg.
Others claimed he used banned substances, alleging that China had developed highly advanced drugs undetectable by current doping tests.
Some media used this narrative to interview a Chinese-American scientist from Stanford Biological College, asking whether current doping test technology could detect all banned substances. The scientist said it couldn't achieve 100% accuracy.
Subsequently, some media twisted his words, using clips from the interview to spread rumors suggesting a high possibility that Link was using undetectable banned substances. They claimed that without such substances, he couldn't possibly be so strong.
Other media tied this story back to last August's Athens Olympics, suggesting Link's 3 golds and 1 silver were also achieved with the help of these mysterious drugs.
In response to these accusations, Link and his top promotional company strongly refuted them and pursued legal action against the rumor-spreading outlets.
Yet, with so many media outlets spreading falsehoods, and their cunning approach to reporting, achieving a legal victory was exceedingly challenging.
These media outlets were aware of these difficulties, which is why they used such tactics to target him, tarnish his image among boxing fans, and stir up controversy.
"Link, don't worry. The company is working with the media to clarify this matter and is suing several of the initial outlets that fabricated the rumors. We won't let these fake news stories continue to spread," Shawn Gibbons said.
"I understand," Link nodded. He had somewhat prepared himself mentally for such situations.
For a Chinese boxer to establish himself in the U.S. boxing ring, not only did he need exceptional strength but also resilience to handle pressure, ignore slander, and face difficulties head-on to keep winning.
Judging from the current situation, there were several suspects behind these rumors.
First, his next opponent and their management company. Second, competitors of the top promotional company who aimed to destroy a strong boxer before he could rise under their banner.