Chapter 011: The Golden Glove Championship

Bang bang!

Above the boxing stage, Link and Mario continued their training.

With Mario's cooperation, he kept changing the mode of attack: Jab, Straight Punch, Left Swing Punches, Upper Hook Punches, Lower Throwing Punches.

He used to be short, and his best was the Jab. The Jab emphasized speed, taking opponents by surprise, not as fierce as the Straight Punch and Swing Punch. However, by quickly striking the effective areas of the opponent's body, one could win by points.

Now that he had grown taller and heavier, his strength had also increased, and his arms were much longer than before, so he needed to make some adjustments to his attacking methods.

While ensuring that his Jab remained sharp, he was intentionally strengthening the training of his Straight Punch, Swing Punch, Hook Punch, and Throwing Punches.

In Combination Punches, he also used more Straight Punches and Swing Punches, which inflicted greater damage, able to deliver a knockout blow at crucial moments.

After training for over an hour, both were drenched in sweat.

The weather in Miami was quite humid, and it was necessary to maintain ventilation indoors to feel refreshed.

The ventilation in the boxing gym was comprehensive, but with a large amount of exercise, their clothes would get wet and then dry, then wet again, forming a layer of sweat salt on their T-shirts.

After a short break, he began to be Mario's sparring partner.

Mario led the offensive, while he focused on defense.

For a Boxer, offense and defense are equally important. A boxer who is good at both offense and defense tends to last longer in the professional Boxing scene.

In the last thirty years, the boxer who did best on the offensive end was undoubtedly Tyson.

Tyson's offensive capability was extremely strong, always moving forward, never retreating. His Boxing moves were clean, punches fierce, and full of wildness, with great spectator appeal, and he was considered the most aggressive boxer in the history of world professional Boxing.

On the defensive end, Tyson's old rival, Evander Holyfield did well.

Though Holyfield was also a power boxer, his defensive skills were exceptionally exquisite.

In the WBA Golden Belt title defenses of 1996 and 1997, Holyfield used his powerful defensive counter-attack tactics to defeat Tyson twice in a row, driving Tyson to the point of biting ears.

Link was a power boxer, but he wasn't sure if he could cope with those professional boxers solely with power after switching to the professional ring.

To be safe, he prepared to excel both offensively and defensively, shaping himself into a well-rounded hexagonal warrior.

"Hey! Link, Mario, stop training for a second. Coach West is back with something fun."

While they were training, a fellow boxer, Reggie, excitedly ran over and called out.

"What is it?"

Link and Mario stopped their hands and jumped off the boxing stage.

The three of them headed to the training area together, where Coach West, Manager Robinson, and the apprentices were all gathered, closely observing a machine that was over two meters tall and box-shaped.

"Wow! It's a punching power testing machine!"

Mario shouted exaggeratedly, pushing through the crowd, rushing excitedly to the machine, and exploring it up and down before turning around and looking at Coach West with a puzzled face.

"West, I've been telling you to buy one of these for a long time, I've told you dozens of times but you never bought it. Why did you buy it now? Wait a minute, is it because of Link?"

Mario sat down on the ground with a plaintive tone and said, "West, I've been trying to convince you dozens of times and you didn't buy it, but the second day Link comes, you move the machine into the boxing gym. This blatant favoritism, this is discrimination, naked discrimination, do you understand?"

West glanced at him with a dark face and said, "It was purchased a long time ago, but it was only delivered today."

"You think I'll believe that? It wasn't delivered earlier or later, but precisely when Link comes, they deliver it. Did the machine manufacturer also know that a talent came to our boxing gym and urgently needed this machine for training?"

Mario teased huffily.

Manager Robinson laughed and said, "Mario, it's true. The punch power testing machine factory is in Nevada. If it was bought yesterday, it definitely wouldn't have arrived today."

"Ah, seems so."

Mario and the others accepted this explanation and felt much better.

West and Robinson exchanged looks and smiled tacitly.

The machine was indeed bought long ago, but the boxing gym was not thriving, and they were too lazy to set it up for Mario and the others to use recklessly. But it was different with Link.

Link was a boxer with great potential. As long as it could help with his training, they didn't mind investing more.

"Step aside, let me check how much my punch weight is."

Mario pushed a few onlooking apprentices away, clenched his fists the size of sandbags, roared, and smashed them heavily onto the testing target of the machine.

Thud!

The target rebounded, and the digits on the screen started to change, rolling up from one hundred pounds swiftly to seven hundred pounds before finally settling on a round figure of 780 pounds.

"780 pounds? Haha, Link, come and test yours," Mario called out.

Link waved his hand, letting the four other Reggie fellows test first. He wanted to see if this testing machine was accurate.

The four boxers took turns to test, and apart from Reggie, who hit 620 pounds, the scores of the other three were in the five-hundreds.

"Link, it's your turn, hurry up and punch."

Mario urged.

Link put down his notebook, stood in front of the machine, clenched his right fist, and struck the punch target powerfully. The numbers on the screen tumbled quickly, and everyone stared at the screen with wide eyes.

As the data surged past 1000 pounds, everyone shouted in surprise, with Link's punch weight finally stabilizing at 1430 pounds.

"Wow, 1430 pounds, I've heard Tyson could only hit 1800 pounds at his peak, and Holyfield 1600 pounds. Link's almost catching up to them," Mario exclaimed.

"No, no, Link is a Middleweight, Tyson and the others are Heavyweights. A Middleweight's punch weight's almost catching up to the weight of Heavyweight champions, that's incredible," Reggie looked admiringly at Link.

The other boxers and apprentices looked at Link with worshipful eyes, feeling as though a boxing champion was right there among them.

Link smiled slightly, knowing that a punch strength tester could only estimate the value of a boxer's punch at the moment of the punch. It was a measure, not the actual 1400 pounds.

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Furthermore, in a boxing match, opponents are living people, who will move, dodge, and block, unlike punch targets that just stand there waiting to be hit.

To successfully land a 1,400-pound punch on an opponent requires a certain level of skill.

The knockouts (KO) that occur in the ring are mostly due to failing to defend against an opponent's heavy punch, being struck directly in the head, leading to unconsciousness.

This is also why the boxing world places significant importance on KO probability; the more often a boxer KOs their opponents, the greater their strength and the better their technique is considered.

Although the data from this machine is not very precise, it is a decent tool for measurement.

As his strength slowly increased in training, having this machine would allow him to better understand his own growth and devise corresponding training plans.

"West, I'm going to measure a few more times to see what the average is,"

Link said.

"Okay,"

West took out his notebook and began recording the test results.

On the punching power test machine, Link struck it 10 times within three minutes. His best score with the right punch was the third at 1,480 pounds; the worst was the ninth at 1,130 pounds, with an average of 1,350 pounds.

His left hand's best was 1,310 pounds, the worst was 880 pounds, with an average of 1,020 pounds, showing a significant disparity from his right hand.

This means that on the boxing ring, if he were to deliver ten punches, his right hand's power could remain above 1,100 pounds, and his left hand's, above 1,000 pounds.

If one of these ten punches were to hit the opponent's head, the opponent would be knocked out.

Given the speed and technique Link displayed, the chances of all ten punches missing were very slim. In the future, his probability of knocking out competitors in matches would be extremely high.

Link took the notebook to review the main data, remembering them so that he could measure his progress monthly.

"Link, I want to measure too. You record it for me,"

Mario clamored.

"Start."

Drawing a deep breath, Mario roared and then pounded punch after punch.

He, too, struck the testing machine continuously 10 times.

The punching sounded earth-shattering, but the recorded data was less than ideal.

The best score was 810 pounds, the worst was 420 pounds, with an average just under 600. These numbers were decent for amateur matches, but for professional competitions, the appearance fee would definitely not exceed one thousand dollars.

"Why is there such a huge difference?"

Mario looked at Link with envy, his average being less than half of Link's, as if it would take two of him to equal one Link.

"I was born strong; you don't need to be so envious,"

Link said with a smile.

Hearing this, Mario grew even more envious. Being naturally gifted meant that no matter how much one trained, they couldn't achieve it, just like telling a monkey that one is born intelligent. Link was really good at putting others down.

"Don't be envious, just train more often, and someday you'll catch up to Link,"

Coach West interjected, addressing the others, "Continue with the measurements, and remember to turn it off afterward. Link, let's talk in the office."

"Okay!"

Link nodded and followed Coach West to the office.

Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window in Coach West's office, one could see the Miami Zoo and Botanical Garden, a pleasant environment.

"Link, take a look at this,"

Coach West handed over a document.

It was the application form for the American Golden Gloves Championship.

The Golden Gloves Championship is the highest level of amateur boxing in America and, along with the National Amateur Boxing Championships and the National Olympic Boxing Trials, is one of the three major amateur boxing events.

In some ways, the Golden Gloves Championship is considered more important than the latter two.

Famous boxing champions such as Ali, Tyson, Joe Louis, and George Foreman all achieved remarkable results in the Golden Gloves Championship before turning professional.

The Golden Gloves Championship is also regarded as the essential pathway for young American boxers to enter the professional boxing world.

It's an excellent platform.

"Link, this year's Golden Gloves Championship starts in early June, just ten days from now. It's a good opportunity for you if you want to become famous early,"

West said.

Link tapped his chin thoughtfully, pulled out a pen, and began filling out the application form.

Participants of the Golden Gloves Championship must be American citizens, aged between 18 and 39, and non-professional boxers.

There are four levels of competition.

The first level is local; all registered competitors first compete in their city, with the top three moving on to the state championship.

The state championship is the second level.

The third level consists of regional competitions: the Eastern, Southeastern, Northwestern, and Central districts. The top four from each region qualify for the National Golden Gloves Championship.

The first three levels are elimination rounds.

The fourth level is the finals, where boxers from the four regions compete for the top three spots, with the champion winning the Golden Gloves Trophy.

The competition dates are from June 3 to June 12.

The finals are to be held at the American Airlines Arena in Miami.

Link would not need to leave Miami to participate in the match.

That was good news.

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