Chapter 14 : State Championship II

After the heavyweight competition ended, the first round of the light heavyweight (over 90 kg) and light heavyweight (over 79.45 kg) competition continued. It was not until after two o'clock in the afternoon that the super middleweight competition, Super Middleweight (over 76.27 kg) began.

  Link weighed 77.4 kg before the game, which is a super middleweight.

  In the first round, his opponent was a black boxer from Everglades City in the west. His skin was much darker than Mario's, with shiny skin, a lean body, and he was an agile fighter.

At the beginning of the first round, the opponent took the initiative to attack Link. Link deliberately entered the opponent's attack range, put his head in front of the opponent as a flaw, and attracted the opponent's attack.

  The opponent was fooled and hit him on the head with a fierce straight punch.

  "You've been fooled."

  Mario yelled.

  With his super-fast reaction ability, Link dodged the opponent's fist by tilting his head. In the opponent's surprised expression, his fist unexpectedly came to the black man's left face and smashed it!

  Bang!

  With a fierce swinging punch, the opponent staggered and fell to the ground.

  "Wow!"

  "Oh, My God!"

  There was a cry of surprise at the scene.

  Because Link is handsome and has a strong and sexy body, when he came on stage, the female audience members cast their attention towards him. When they saw him knock down his opponent with one punch, the audience screamed loudly, and the cheers were louder than in all the other shows.

  "It's the same trick again. It's too insidious."

  Mario covered his face, thinking about the first time he was knocked unconscious. Even though half a month had passed, he still felt a little dizzy when he thought about it now.

  "This move is too ruthless. I dare say no one can crack it. I wish I could learn it."

  Reggie said excitedly.

  West shook his head, stroking his stubble and said, "It's difficult. This move requires extremely high speed, strength, and reaction ability. Most people can't learn it."

  "I don't believe it. When I get back, I'll ask Link to learn it. Next time we play, I'll use this trick to trick my opponent."

  Mario said firmly.

  In the boxing ring, thanks to the protection of the sponge headgear, the opponent was not knocked unconscious after being knocked down, and he quickly got up to continue the game.

After suffering a loss once, the black boxer became smarter. He kept dodging in the next two rounds and didn't fight with him at all. Whenever he moved forward, the black boxer would retreat or hug him, not giving him the chance to land a heavy punch.

  Link was also a little helpless. Compared with the boxers in the bar and the three opponents in the regional competition, the contestants in the state championship were obviously stronger, and they did very well in speed and defense.

  He would throw ten punches, and his opponent would dodge more than seven of them.

  As the opponent's strength increases, the difficulty of the game also increases accordingly.

  If you want to win the game quickly, you must use more sophisticated techniques.

  "Link, take your time. Don't try to knock out your opponent. Just win."

  At the end of the second round, in the rest area, West pulled him aside and gave him some instructions.

  "I see!"

  Link nodded and spit out the water in his mouth. Staying appropriately hungry and thirsty during the game would help him perform better, just like a hungry cheetah.

At the beginning of the third round, Link slowed down the pace of attack, using stillness to overcome movement and responding to ever-changing situations with constancy.

  When his opponents saw that he was no longer chasing them, they thought that his strength was declining, so they changed their tactics and slowed down the pace of the game.

  Just 50 seconds into the third round, when his opponent retreated to the edge of the corner, Link suddenly attacked, throwing a long-distance punch on his opponent's arm, breaking his double-arm defense, and then threw a backhand right hook →, hitting his opponent's cheek, and then a straight punch hit his opponent's forehead.

  Bang!

  This time the punch was more accurate, hitting the opponent in the face. The opponent took two steps back, hit the ropes first, and then fell to the ground.

  Although the opponent was protected by a sponge headgear, the punch was heavy and hit very hard. The opponent struggled twice but was unable to get up.

  The referee ruled Link the winner.

  In amateur matches, the sponge head covers worn by both players can significantly reduce the weight of the boxers' punches. Combined with boxing gloves, a 100-pound punch can be reduced to about 10 pounds.

  With a double reduction, he knocked his opponent down with one punch, which was so heavy that it made him unable to get up. This was the first time such a thing happened in this tournament.

  After Link KO'd his opponent and won, the audience cheered loudly, applauding and cheering for his two wonderful KOs.

  Link pumped his fist and returned to the stage.

  "Link, you are amazing. You can beat your opponent even when he is wearing a mask." Reggie flattered him in time.

Mario next to him snorted and said, "Now you know how dangerous it is to be his sparring partner? Every time I train with him, I risk my life. It's not easy."

  "But your boxing skills have also improved a lot." Reggie said with a smile.

  "Of course, I paid for this with my life."

  Mario said, patting his chest.

  Link didn't look very happy when he heard this. In just the first round of the state championship, he was dragged into the third round by his opponent. In the national championship, his opponents would be stronger and would probably be more difficult to deal with.

  He originally planned to reach the finals of the Golden Gloves Championship with a record of KOing all his opponents and win the attention of the media with his strong strength.

  It seems very difficult now.

  Link clenched his fists and secretly blamed himself, thinking that he should have worked harder in training. If he had a heavier punch, faster speed, and quicker reaction ability, the game would be easy and he wouldn't have such worries.

  ——

  After the super middleweight competition, the middleweight (over 72 kg) competition continued. Reggie played in boxing gloves. His opponent was quite strong. The two sides fought for ten rounds. In the end, Reggie won by points with a score of 96:88.

  This score is determined by the on-site judge.

  There are six referees at the tournament, three scoring judges, two umpires and one ring referee, and the matches are scored using computers.

  Each amateur match has 10 rounds, each round lasts 2 minutes, which is two rounds less than a professional match and one minute shorter.

  Each round has 10 points for each side.

  When two boxers demonstrate equal ability and strength, and neither boxer shows a clear advantage, each boxer gets 10 points, 10-10.

  When two boxers suffer the same heavy blow in this round and the other has the upper hand, the one with the upper hand scores 1 point, 10-9.

  When one boxer wins the round by a clear advantage, the advantaged boxer scores two points, 10-8.

  Knocks down the opponent once in the match, showing overwhelming advantage, 10-7.

  The winner knocks down the opponent twice in this round, or has overwhelming advantage and knocks down the opponent once, 10-6.

  If the two sides fight a full 10 rounds, after the game, the three referees will add up the scores of the ten rounds. The side with the higher total score wins, which is called "winning by points" in boxing.

  Winning by points will also result in three different situations due to the different scores of the three judges:

  The three judges made a unanimous decision, and the winner was given a UD.

  One referee decides that boxer A wins, and the other two decide that boxer B wins. The result of boxer B's match is recorded as SD.

  One referee decides that the two sides are tied on points, and the other two referees decide that one side wins on points. The winning side is recorded as MD.

  Reggie had a clear advantage in the match, and in the end the three judges unanimously decided that he won, marking it as UD.

  After the middleweight match, the second round of heavyweight competition continued.

  In this round, Mario's opponent was a strong white man with good skills. The two sides fought for 10 rounds on the stage. Mario knocked down his opponent once, and his opponent also scored a few points against him.

  The score between the two sides was 91:94. One referee judged that Mario won, and two judges ruled that the white boxer won. Mario lost the game by a small margin.

  "Discrimination! It's definitely discrimination. If I were white, they would definitely rule me the winner."

  After stepping down, Mario said angrily.

  "Shut up!"

  West pulled him out of the ring.

  Among the five referees of this game, there was one white person, two black people, and two Latinos. Even if there was an element of discrimination, there was nothing that could be done about it.

But in fact, the referee's decision was not a big problem. It was Mario's playing style that was problematic.

  He adopted a defensive tactic in the first round and found that his opponent was of average strength. In the second round, he took the lead in attacking, but this time he met an opponent with good skills and the opponent defended very well.

Mario only knocked down his opponent once in the second, third and fourth rounds and was completely unable to win the match like he did in the first round.

  After the fifth round, Mario's attack was weak and he was forced to choose defense. He fought very weakly, and the white boxer had a certain advantage on the field.

  If Mario hadn't gotten a knockdown, the score difference would have been even greater.

  So the referee's final decision that the white boxer won was based on certain grounds. If Mario had insisted on arbitration, the members of the Amateur Boxing Association would not have supported him.

  "snort!"

  West had a gloomy face after he came off the court, and didn't even want to look at him. Just now in the game, he asked Mario to change tactics many times, but Mario didn't listen to the advice, underestimated the enemy and advanced recklessly, arrogantly.

He thought that because he trained with Link, his strength had improved and he could easily defeat his opponent, but it was obvious that his strength was not as high as he imagined.

  Mario saw West's dark face and calmed down. He scratched his forehead and said, "West, it's my fault. I didn't expect his skills to be so good. I thought he might make it to the finals."

  "Whether he can make it to the finals has nothing to do with you. You've already been eliminated." West snorted coldly.

  "I know I'm wrong, but what's the use? The game is over."

  Mario thought that he couldn't participate in the next game, looked at his fist and growled, then sat down on the chair with a depressed look on his face.

Looking at Link who was listening to music and Reggie who was playing mobile games, he said unhappily: "I lost, and you guys don't even comfort me?"

  "Huh? You lost? So quickly? I didn't know." Reggie raised his head and asked in surprise.

  "Fuck Reggie! I'm playing a game while you're playing games?" Mario covered his chest and suffered double damage.

  "Sorry, I'll definitely watch the next game," Reggie said politely.

  "Fuck! I'm eliminated and have to go home. There's no next game, do you understand?" Mario grabbed his shoulders and yelled.

  "Losing is not something to brag about, why are you shouting so loudly?"

  Link picked his ears and stretched lazily in his seat. "Besides, you asked for this. West gave you a tactical plan but you didn't listen. Who do you blame? You should go to the lounge, find a notebook and write a 10,000-word self-reflection instead of yelling here."

  "Hmph! It's great that you didn't lose. You will lose someday, and then I will use these words to laugh at you." Mario said angrily with a sour face.

  "You won't stand a chance, man."

  Link shook his index finger, stood up and went backstage to prepare.

  (End of this chapter)