Chapter 408: Boxing

Link didn't attend the company's expanded meeting, partly because he was confident in Ivanka's abilities and partly to maintain her absolute authority in the company. His presence would distract everyone.

However, after hearing that she had criticized several executives, including Steven Beeks, by name at the meeting and announced a 20% layoff within the year, he couldn't help but sweat for her.

If taking office meant lighting three fires, Ivanka had pretty much lit all three. The first was directed at him, the second at several executives, and the third at all the unmotivated employees. This posture was like burning Lionsgate from top to bottom.

Link later asked Ivanka what would happen if several company executives joined forces to resign or strike.

Ivanka laughed at him for not understanding management and people's hearts. Lionsgate was a major production company, as long as there was money, there was no need to worry about no one doing the work. As for the resignation of executives, these executives all had families and careers, belonging to the middle class or above.

Once they resigned and couldn't find a better job, they would face a decline in class, which was a very painful thing for many people. This was also why some people with millions of dollars still jumped off buildings during the financial crisis.

To keep their jobs, they needed to work hard and produce outstanding results to prove their value to the company.

Ivanka said she hoped someone would take the initiative to resign, so that there would be less trouble when layoffs came at the end of the year.

Seeing Ivanka explain these things in a calm and collected tone, Link also felt that there was a big gap between himself and Ivanka in handling company affairs, a gap that couldn't even be filled with knowledge.

This also made him feel a little helpless, feeling that he was more suitable to be a behind-the-scenes manipulator than a domineering president.

"You're so capable, I'll leave Lionsgate to you."

Link picked up his jacket and said.

"Where are you going?"

President Ivanka asked, leaning back in her chair.

"Boxing!"

---

Thump, thump, thump! Thump, thump, thump!

In the Muscle Beach boxing training ground, Link, shirtless and wearing hand wraps, punched the red leather sandbag continuously with lightning speed.

After practicing for more than two hours, he was covered in sweat.

After handing over the position of chairman of Lionsgate, he didn't go directly to the boxing gym. Instead, he spent a few days in the production department's script room, selecting two low-budget horror films from thousands of scripts.

One was "Mama," a script adapted from the Spanish short film of the same name.

The other was "The Conjuring," a new script by James Wan, the director of the "Saw" series.

Link had seen the first film, starring Jessica Chastain.

It was about two little sisters who were abandoned in the forest by their father after their mother was killed by him.

Five years later, they were found by their uncle and taken home to be cared for, and their mother also came back.

Link forgot how much the film grossed at the box office, but it was well-received and considered a classic must-see by many horror movie fans.

The director and producer of this film, Andy Muschietti, later directed the "It" series of horror films, which were also well-received. The first film in this series grossed $700 million worldwide, making it one of the highest-grossing horror films in history.

After seeing the script in the production department, Link asked to contact the director immediately, buy the adaptation rights for the "Mama" script, and prepare for filming.

A producer asked him for the reason.

No reason, he just liked it.

The second film, "The Conjuring," Link hadn't seen and didn't know the box office results.

But this horror film was later made into a series with four or five films. From this point of view, the box office performance of the first film must have been good.

In addition, the classic horror film "Annabelle" was considered a spin-off of "The Conjuring." With an investment of a few million dollars, it grossed over $200 million worldwide and was also considered a box office dark horse of the year.

Therefore, after seeing the script for "The Conjuring," he personally contacted director James Wan and invited him back to Lionsgate with a big contract.

Originally, after James Wan collaborated with Lionsgate on "Saw 7" last year, the two sides ended their cooperation because they couldn't agree on a new film project.

Director James Wan received an invitation from FilmDistrict and went to shoot "Insidious," which hadn't been released yet.

But Link had seen "Insidious: Chapter 3" and could guess that this film had great potential. He planned to buy the distribution and copyright of this film after "Insidious" was completed and bring the series back to Lionsgate.

With these horror series, Lionsgate could prioritize sequels when choosing new projects in the future. As long as the quality didn't decline, the company would have several stable box office sources.

Link spent a few days in the production department looking through scripts and only found these two familiar ones for the time being.

After arranging these two projects, he left the company and came to Muscle Beach to train, preparing for the upcoming four major organizations' super middleweight challenge.

He had two opponents.

The first was WBA-IBF British champion Rocky Fielding.

The other was WBC-WBO North American champion Andre Ward, an old acquaintance. In the 2009 four major organizations' unification fight, Link was almost defeated by him because Selena had made him drink too much and he wasn't clear-headed.

Now, after two years of hard training, Andre Ward had accumulated a professional record of 26 fights, 25 wins, and 1 loss. In February, he successfully defeated WBO North American champion Mario Morales in the WBC-WBO title challenger match, earning the qualification to challenge Link.

Both opponents were strong.

Link felt a little pressure, so he quickly returned to the training ground after Ivanka took over Lionsgate.

In the past few days, he had been training for more than ten hours a day, from morning to night, tirelessly.

There was another reason for such high-intensity training. Last year, while filming Captain America, his weight increased to 80 kilograms, while the weight limit for participating in super middleweight competitions was 76 kilograms. He needed to lose four kilograms of muscle.

But the muscles on his body were all built up through daily training last year and this year, without any excess fat. It wasn't easy to lose them in a short time.

However, it didn't matter if he didn't lose the weight before the match. According to professional competition rules, if the weight exceeded one kilogram, he would be fined $100,000 to compensate the opponent. He only needed to pay four or five hundred thousand dollars.

Thump, thump, thump!

Link, sweating profusely, punched the sandbag with his strong fists.

The sandbag, filled with sand, sawdust, and grains, had several obvious dents from the punches, and the hanging hook was slightly shaking.

Because he had been training for too long, a layer of fine sweat appeared on his bronze skin.

With his movements, the sweat slid down his firm muscles, and the waistband of his sweatpants was already wet with sweat, clinging tightly to his steel-like waist.

"Hey, Link, want to spar?"

Hearing the shout, Link stopped and looked at the training area aisle in surprise.

Oscar De La Hoya, wearing a sports vest and shorts, walked over with boxing gloves on, his fists bumping against the gloves, showing a provocative expression.

"Why aren't you wearing a suit today?"

"Cut the crap, do you dare to have another match? I was affected by the concert in Las Vegas last year and didn't perform well. If I had performed normally, I would have had a chance to draw with you. If I had performed exceptionally, I would have had a good chance of defeating you. Do you agree with this?"

De La Hoya came over and said.

"Hey, De La Hoya, you lost half a year ago. What's the use of talking big now? Can you beat Link with your mouth?"

Morales put down the barbell, sat up, and retorted.

"Shut up! You've been training with Link for more than two years. I originally thought you could beat Andre Ward and get the qualification to compete with Link, but you didn't. You should reflect on yourself, focus on training, and try to win back in the next game, instead of talking back to me, a former world champion."

De La Hoya glanced at him and said.

Morales shrugged and stopped talking. Last year, he participated in the WBO ranking competition, winning all four matches and obtaining the WBO North American champion title, ranking third in the organization.

At the beginning of the year, the four major organizations held a round-robin tournament, inviting the top three from each organization to participate. The winner would have the opportunity to compete with Link.

In the three matches, he won the first two. In the final WBC-WBO champion challenger merger match, he faced Andre Ward. After 12 rounds, he was hit multiple times by hisIf he could compete with Link, his fame and appearance fees would double, but unfortunately, he missed that opportunity.

Hearing De La Hoya's words, Morales didn't refute and continued to lift weights.

"Andre Ward is very strong and can be ranked in the top ten on the P4P list. It's already very good that Morales can fight him for 12 rounds. Maybe he can consider competing for a small organization's champion title."

Link stopped and said.

"How many years do you plan to dominate the super middleweight division of the four major organizations?"

De La Hoya asked.

"Let's wait until I get the light heavyweight gold belt. Maybe next year I'll give up the super middleweight division and focus on light heavyweight competitions."

Link said.

"That's good. After you dominated the super middleweight division, several champions like Andre Riel and Jean Pascal fled the super middleweight division, some switching to middleweight and some rising to light heavyweight. If you stay in the super middleweight division for five years, the boxers in this field will probably be gone, even desolate."

De La Hoya complained.

Link chuckled, took a sip of water, put on his boxing gloves, and invited De La Hoya to spar in the ring.

De La Hoya didn't refuse and went up to fight him for ten rounds, with Coach Brooks as the referee.

After the match started, De La Hoya still played to his strengths, which was his super fast punching speed.

Every time he hit the target, his fists would continuously hit the opponent, like raindrops.

Because he not only had fast punches but also heavy punches, almost no one was his opponent when he fought in the lightweight and middleweight divisions, and he once created a record of 31 undefeated fights.

Until later, he encountered Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, and Bernard Hopkins.

Mayweather and Pacquiao's punching speed was also very fast, even faster than his, so De La Hoya couldn't beat them. Hopkins was physically strong, resistant to punches, and also had good speed, so De La Hoya couldn't beat him either.

And last year in the boxing ring in Las Vegas, he continued to use fast punches against Link.

It was said that a few months before the match, he even personally flew to Cuba to consult with the Cuban national boxing team coach Felix Savon about guerrilla tactics, trying to surprise Link in the match.

And in the match, his fast punches and guerrilla tactics did cause some trouble for Link.

But Link's punching speed was not inferior to his, and his reaction speed was even faster. More importantly, Link's punches were much heavier than his.

His ten punches hitting Link couldn't compare to Link's one punch hitting him.

In the end, Link cornered him in the third round and knocked him out with a series of punches, ending the match.

Afterward, De La Hoya reviewed the match and found that Link's boxing skills and other abilities were too comprehensive, and he couldn't beat him no matter how he fought.

He felt discouraged, but when he saw Link, he didn't want to admit defeat easily. He wanted to fight again to see if there was any way to find a weakness.

And when Link was fighting with De La Hoya, he wasn't in a hurry to end the match. He often used harassment tactics to lure De La Hoya to attack, and then tried to defend against all his attacks, in order to train his reaction ability, defense ability, and blocking skills.

The two fought for ten rounds, and De La Hoya couldn't find any obvious weaknesses in Link, sweating profusely.

Link also showed mercy and only punched him in the face a few times, without knocking him out.

"Link, how come your boxing skills and physical strength haven't declined at all, even though you're holding concerts every day, chasing girls all over the world, and now you're a boss in Hollywood?"

De La Hoya sat on the rubber floor, panting heavily, looking at him helplessly.

"I don't smoke or do drugs, I have a regular lifestyle, and I insist on physical fitness and boxing training every day. Why would my strength decline?"

Link said with a smile, draping a towel over his shoulders.

"Humph! You used to mock me, saying that I was a playboy and my private life was indiscreet, which led to the decline of my boxing skills and made me one of the most regrettable boxing champions in history. But you have girlfriends from more than ten countries, you're much more promiscuous than me. Aren't you worried that your strength will decline like mine?"

De La Hoya teased.

"Not worried, my waist is very good."

Link shrugged, took off his gloves, rested for a while in the training ground, and continued his boxing practice.

De La Hoya sat on the steps, looking at his agile footwork, elusive punches, and tireless demeanor, and sighed helplessly, feeling envy and jealousy.

Link was born for boxing. His physical condition, boxing skills, and willpower were all top-notch among boxers.

What was even more rare was that he was only twenty-two years old and had more than ten or twenty years of professional career ahead of him.

What would he become in the future? Would he create multiple records in boxing history? Become the number one person in boxing?

De La Hoya thought it was very possible.

"Link, keep going, don't give up boxing. Let me see how far you can go."

De La Hoya shouted, waving his fist.

"I will."

Link waved his fist and slammed it hard on the sandbag.

In late April, Link had two boxing matches in Warsaw, Poland, and Singapore.

The first match was against WBA-IBF European champion Rocky Fielding.

He was Joe Calzaghe's sparring partner and junior, 26 years old this year. He was originally a middleweight boxer with a professional record of 30 fights, 2 losses, and 18 KOs.

Last year, he moved up to super middleweight and defeated Carl Froch in the European region to qualify to fight Link.

Rocky was good, fast, skilled in combination punches, and deceptive in his movements.

The downside was that he had just moved up to super middleweight, and his punching power couldn't keep up.

In the first round, 36 seconds in, Link punched him in the forehead, causing him to lie on the ground for 10 seconds unable to get up, once again defending his WBA-IBF champion title.

The second match was against Andre Ward in Singapore.

This match was originally scheduled to be held in Hong Kong, but before the match, the Hong Kong organizers failed to negotiate the venue and the promotion was not in place, causing the match date to be delayed again and again.

After several parties negotiated, the venue for this match and the next light heavyweight match were swapped. The title defense match would be held in Singapore first, and then the light heavyweight challenge would be held in Hong Kong after they were ready.

In the Singapore match, Andre Ward was fighting with a vengeance.

He took the initiative to attack from the beginning of the match until the end of the first round. After the second round started, Andre Ward continued to attack fiercely, fighting tenaciously and intensely.

Link didn't intend to end the match early either. He used his superb boxing skills to fight Andre Ward for three rounds. In the third round, 47 seconds in, he knocked down his opponent with one punch and successfully defended his title again.

His professional record accumulated to 22 fights, 22 wins, and 22 KOs.

Afterward, Andre Ward met him and said that he was an invincible opponent. He planned to move up to light heavyweight and hoped to have the opportunity to compete again in the light heavyweight arena in the future.

Link agreed.

Because of his fame, the organizers did a good job of promoting the matches beforehand, attracting many boxing fans to watch via TV and the internet, and the ticket sales were also quite good.

He also earned $78 million in prize money from the two matches.

(End of chapter)