Chapter 82: Exciting Review

"Catherine, come quick and see, Link is on TV! Wow, he looks so handsome in a suit."

In front of the TV, Selena Gomez sat on the sofa, wearing a yellow dress and stockings, holding a bag of chips in her arms, her cheeks bulging with snacks like a giant hamster.

Catherine came out of the study wearing glasses, holding a script in her hand. She looked at Link in a suit on TV, his facial features handsome and three-dimensional, always with a charming smile on his face. She nodded approvingly, "He is indeed very handsome, and he's also a world champion. No one of his age is better than him."

"He used to look like a little hooligan when I saw him. Why is he so amazing now?" Selena asked, propping her face up with her hands.

"It's probably because of boxing. Boxing makes people strong."

Catherine also put down her work and sat down to watch the TV show.

"Link, how did it feel to participate in the Olympics in China?"

In the HBO recording studio, host Steve looked at Link, who was sitting next to Tyson, and asked.

"It was great. I love China, it's a great country."

Link said admiringly.

"Can you elaborate?" Steve asked.

"Of course. Since joining the WTO, China's economic development has been the fastest in the world, and its infrastructure construction is getting better and better. The environment in first-tier cities is no worse than international metropolises like Los Angeles and Miami..."

Link spoke eloquently in front of the camera, talking about China's economy, scenery, food, kung fu, Peking opera, the Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang, and so on. He touched on everything except politics, and of course, only mentioned the good aspects.

"Wow, Link, you only stayed in China for more than ten days and you know so much, that's amazing."

Steve clapped his hands and said.

Link shrugged and smiled, "I told you, I love China, so I made a special effort to learn about it during the competition. I even took the time to travel to Zhangjiajie. I heard that James Cameron's new movie was filmed there. The scenery there is really beautiful."

"Sounds great, I'll go to China sometime too." Steve echoed.

"Get to the topic of Link's weight control."

Ms. Tina prompted.

Steve smiled and said, "Link, speaking of Chinese food, how many kinds of Chinese food have you tried, and which one do you like best?"

Link said regretfully, "I originally weighed 78 kilograms, but in order to participate in the middleweight competition, I had to diet and control my weight to under 75 kilograms. So during the competition, I hardly ate any food outside, but I know there are many kinds of Chinese food, and my favorite is probably hot pot. This dish is also available in Chinatown, you can try it."

"Hot pot? Sounds good, I'll definitely try it sometime."

Steve received instructions from the on-site producer and changed the question, "Link, if you had to use one word to describe your Olympic journey, what word would you use?"

Link thought for a moment and smiled, "Wish fulfilled! Dream come true."

"So winning the Olympic championship was your dream?"

Steve asked.

"Pretty much!"

Link gave a meaningful smile to the camera.

"Get to the topic!"

Ms. Tina said.

"Okay! Next, let's move on to the 'Following the Champion to Watch Boxing' segment. Next, we will play the video of Link's preliminary round match in this Olympics. In the preliminary round, Link faced Irish boxer Darren Sutherland."

Darren Sutherland, 26 years old this year, was the Irish super middleweight amateur boxing champion and had won a bronze medal at the 2007 World Championships in November. His amateur record was 73 wins, 7 losses, and 2 draws in 82 fights, a very skilled boxer.

As Steve introduced him, the big screen in the studio began to play the video of the Olympic match. Link, wearing a blue competition uniform, blue protective gear, and blue gloves, waved his fists and continuously attacked his opponent.

Darren also moved flexibly in the ring, constantly dodging, but his speed was not as agile as Link's.

At 112 seconds into the first round, Link hit his opponent's forehead with a straight punch, knocking him to the ground.

Wow!

A cheer erupted from the audience as they saw him knock down his opponent.

In the following three rounds, Link knocked down his opponent four more times, causing him to fall to the ground for several seconds each time, successfully advancing to the quarterfinals.

Link watched the video on the big screen and couldn't help but recall the situation of the competition in Beijing. Overall, it went smoothly, but the difficulty of the competition was no less than that of the Americas qualifier, especially the quarterfinals and semifinals, which were more difficult than defeating Peterson.

After the preliminary round clip finished playing, the screen froze, and Steve said, "Link, looking back at your match with Darren Sutherland, how do you evaluate this opponent?"

Link smiled and said, "Darren is a great boxer. His jabs are very fierce and tricky, and he's also very difficult to deal with. But he has a problem. His left eye was once seriously injured, and he has some post-traumatic stress disorder, which causes him to be afraid of his opponent after being knocked down. This is what I learned from talking to him after the match. If he didn't have these problems, I think it would be very difficult to defeat him."

Link talked about Darren Sutherland's experience. His situation was somewhat similar to that of Cuban boxer Rosniel, who had an old injury.

Darren had represented Ireland in a match against the Russian B team in 2006 and was hit in the left eye, almost causing him to lose his sight.

Later, with the financial support of the Irish Boxing Association, the hospital performed a transplant surgery for him, filling his eye muscles with new materials to help him regain some vision, but his vision was still affected, which was Darren's weakness.

"Darren is indeed a very strong person."

Steve nodded and looked at Tyson and the other two, asking, "What do you think of Link's performance in this round?"

Tyson waved his fists and gestured a few times, "Very good. Link's fighting style is as sharp as mine. We both like to use heavy punches to break through the opponent's defense and then knock them down with heavy punches. This style is very cool."

"No, I don't think so."

Rafael shook his head and retorted, "Link's boxing is smarter and more diverse than yours. He not only uses his fists in the match but also uses his brain and tactics, often winning against stronger opponents. This can be seen from his matches against Peterson, Aragon, Altaiyev, and James DeGale."

Doug Fisher nodded beside him, "I've watched all of Link's match videos during this time, and his matches have two main highlights. The first is, of course, his KO technique. Boxing is the art of knockout, and no one doesn't want to see a boxer knock down his opponent in a match. Link does this very well.

The second is his use of boxing tactics in the match. His tactics are different in every match. I asked his coaches West and Ed, and they both said that Link would formulate his own tactics during the match, and they only provided suggestions. This is very impressive."

"Very well said."

Host Steve clapped his hands and said to Link, "What do you think of their comments?"

"Great, but in terms of tactics, Coach West and Coach Ed also helped me a lot in the match. They are experienced veterans with rich experience in competitions. Although I don't follow their tactics most of the time, I will refer to their opinions and adjust and modify my own tactics. Here, I would also like to thank the two coaches. My gold medal also has their credit."

Link said modestly to the camera.

Clap clap clap!

The audience applauded.

"Wow, Link said it so well!"

In the West Boxing Gym in Miami, West, Reggie, Mario, Robinson, and others sat around the TV, watching Link talk eloquently on TV.

"Link is not only good at boxing, but he is also so humble after becoming a world champion. I wish I could be like him."

Reggie looked at the TV longingly and said.

Jim and the other apprentices nodded repeatedly.

"Haha, Link is indeed a good kid. Inviting him to join the gym was the best decision I've ever made."

West grinned and laughed, but tears welled up in his eyes.

"Wait! Why didn't he thank me?"

Mario stood up and pointed at the TV, dissatisfied. "I trained with him for more than two months, got hit so many times, and was even knocked out three times. Don't I deserve any credit? Doesn't he deserve to thank me?"

"Shut up, Link has four sparring partners, and you trained with him the least. You still want him to thank you?"

Coach West glared at him.

"Mario, Link didn't want to use you as a sparring partner, but you didn't want to leave. And by training with Link, you benefited even more."

Reggie winked

Link naturally praised Chinese characters, calling them the greatest characters in the world and Chinese the greatest language. That evening, after the interview, his news was featured on CCTV's evening news.

On the seventh day of the Olympics, he became popular on Chinese social media and in the media due to his handsome appearance and interesting "matchstick" style of writing Chinese characters, gaining high popularity in China.

Subsequently, his boxing matches also received special attention from Chinese television. The audience for each match increased from over a thousand to over three thousand, mostly college students from schools around the Workers' Stadium, who came to cheer him on.

Link also gained some home-court advantage in the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals.

After the news of his heroic rescue of the drowning child was exposed, Chinese television repeatedly reported the news, calling it one of the most touching events of the 29th Olympic Games.

In his final match against Aragon, over ten thousand people came to the Beijing Workers' Stadium to cheer him on.

Seeing so many people supporting him, Link didn't want to lose the match in front of his "hometown" crowd. He became more and more excited as he fought, throwing 108 punches in the first round, including 48 heavy punches, directly knocking Aragon to the ground. In the second round, he continued his attack, knocking down Aragon again and forcing him to give up the match.

If Aragon had continued to fight, he might have been seriously injured, affecting the fight for the silver medal. In the end, Aragon fought another match against James DeGale, defeating him with a score of 22:13 and winning the silver medal for the second time.

"Mike, look, this is Link's tactic, using language to gain home-court advantage. If it were you, could you have thought of this?" Rafael asked, pointing at the whiteboard.

Tyson shook his head, looking at Link as if he were a monster. "Learning a language to win a match? And the most difficult one, Chinese? I think no one but Link could do it."

Link smiled slightly. In his past life, he wanted to represent his country in the Olympics but missed the opportunity. He wanted to do it in this life too, but as a pure American, he had no chance to naturalize. He could only use this method to fulfill his wish in both lives, and fortunately, the result was quite good.

"Ask Link who that Chinese actress is. He used 'she' to refer to her."

Ms. Tina asked.

Steve was helpless. How did a good sports program turn into gossip and entertainment news?

(End of Chapter)