Chapter 15 : State Championship III

  "What are you doing today? Have you practiced guitar?"

  At night, at the Aloft Hotel in downtown Orlando, Link came out of the bathroom after taking a shower and received two messages from Taylor on his mobile phone, asking him what he did today, saying that she was recording music in a music studio in Manhattan's East Village today, and also said that she wrote a song for him.

  After seeing Taylor's message, Link was reluctant to reply. After the last music festival, Taylor only met him briefly, left him a guitar, asked him to continue practicing, and then ran away on a plane.

  The last time the two of them walked hand in hand on the street, Link thought they were in love and felt a little excited. After all, she was Taylor Swift. For a small miner to be able to date a big star was definitely a turn of events, like a toad riding on the back of a silver dragon.

  But then the music festival came, the two met less and less, and their relationship became dull. After Taylor left Miami, although the two occasionally chatted, it was not as casual as before.

  This hot-and-cold relationship made Link feel very uncomfortable. He was a boxer and liked to be direct and get straight to the point when interacting with women.

  Things like romance seem too advanced for him. He can't handle it, nor can he enjoy the passion brought by such a relationship, and it will also delay his training and competition.

  Love is also one of the biggest taboos for boxers.

  This is one of the things Coach Lao Liu told him to pay attention to.

  Lao Liu said that when a boxer starts dating or gets married, his time and attention will be distracted by other things and his strength will inevitably decline.

  Link kept this in mind.

  After seeing Taylor's message, Link thought about it and decided to briefly tell Taylor about what happened today. There was only one thing: the competition.

  He had three fights at the Amway Arena today, and won the first one by knocking out his opponent in the third round.

  The second match went more smoothly than the first. His opponent was a fat white boxer, a power player. He started punching Link hard from the start, which was exactly what Link wanted.

  In the first round, Link threw 15 punches, hit his opponent 4 times and knocked him down twice; his opponent threw more than 40 punches, hit his effective parts 7 times, and hit his face once, almost knocking him down.

  In the second round, Link threw 10 punches and knocked down his opponent twice; his opponent threw 8 punches and hit his effective parts 3 times.

  In the third round, the opponent took a defensive stance, trying to use delaying tactics to slow down the progress of the game.

  However, Link didn't want to give his opponent time to rest. 20 seconds after the start of the game, he used a set of combination punches to break through his opponent's defense, and then used an uppercut to knock his opponent to the ground.

  The opponent fell to the ground and was unable to get up for ten seconds, so the referee declared him the winner.

  The situation in the third match was a little more complicated. His opponent was of Mexican descent, very strong and able to withstand strong blows.

It took him five rounds, knocking down his opponent six times and making his opponent bleed from the nose, before he won the match.

  After three games, he also successfully entered the state championship finals.

  "Can you make it to the tournament finals?"

  Taylor asked in a message back.

  "Of course! 100% sure."

  "Okay, when you play in the finals, I'll be there to cheer you on."

  "It's settled then."

  Link smiled and decided not to let her go when Taylor arrived.

  "Link, do you want to go shopping?"

  Mario asked as he and Reggie burst into the room side by side.

  "No!"

  "Why don't you go change your clothes and shoes?"

  "Running! I didn't have time to run this morning because I was on the bus, so I'm making up for it now."

  After saying that, Link ran out of the room wearing running shoes, a hooded sports sweatshirt, and headphones.

  Mario and Reggie stared at his running back in a daze.

  "After playing games all day, you still have to run at night?"

  "Is he a human? He is definitely not a human!"

  "I'm so envious. Link has such great stamina."

  "Reggie, forget about him, let's go shopping. I heard there are a lot of hot girls at Universal Studios Orlando. Hehe, we must pick one up tonight."  

  "Mario, I've thought about it and decided not to go. I'm going for a run too. You can go by yourself."

  Reggie scratched his blond hair, went back into the house, changed into sportswear and running shoes, and went downstairs to run.

  Mario stood blankly at the door, looking at the empty corridor, and suddenly felt that the air around him was a little cold.

  ——

  Orlando is located in central Florida, more than fifty miles away from the Atlantic Ocean. The tree species and density here are more than those in Miami Beach.

The morning air is also fresher and cooler than in Miami, without the fishy smell of the sea breeze. It feels great to go for a morning run here.

  There was a competition in the morning, so Link only ran five kilometers before returning to the hotel to eat. Mario saw him coming back from running, his face was black and smelly, as if he had eaten mealworms in the bread. Link was too lazy to care about him, so he quickly finished his breakfast and rushed to the Amway Arena to participate in the competition.

  After two rounds of elimination, only four boxers of each level are left. One person will be eliminated in the next two rounds, and the remaining three will decide the champion, runner-up and third place and qualify for the Southeast Division competition.

  The number of spectators present today was also greater than yesterday, basically maintaining above 4,000 people, and the front rows of the auditorium were basically full.

  "Hey, look over there, why is there a poster of Link there?"

  Mario pointed to the front row of the auditorium, where there were several young girls holding up a poster of Link.

  In the poster, Link is wearing red boxing gloves, revealing his muscular body and iron-like muscles. With his handsome face and blue eyes, he looks even cooler than Tom Cruise in "Mission Impossible 3".

  "That's cool, Link should go to Hollywood."

  "They are Link's boxing fans. Link now has boxing fans." Reggie said enviously.

  "Impossible. It's only the second day. How could there be boxing fans here to cheer?" Mario turned to Link. "Did you hire them yourself? Otherwise, where would they get your photo for the poster?"

  "I'm not that boring." Link smiled.

  West shook his head. "Yesterday's game was reported on Orlando local TV stations and Fox News. Orlando's official news website also had news and pictures of the game, including Link's picture."

  Mario searched it on his phone and found it.

  "Hey, Link, you're famous now, how do you feel?" Mario asked with a look of envy and jealousy.

  "It feels really good to be liked by others."

  Link smiled and put on his headphones to listen to music.

  At around nine o'clock in the morning, the third round of the competition officially began. The heavyweight competition was held first at Match Point A.

The white man who defeated Mario yesterday also entered the third round and defeated his opponent in the third round, successfully breaking into the top three. This result made Mario feel a lot more comfortable.

  Link's match was at about 11:00 a.m. When he went on stage, several boxing fans held up posters and shouted "Link will win", attracting the attention of many viewers.

  Link laughed and waved his fist at the few fans who were there, causing them to shout even louder.

  The cameras at the scene also promptly pointed their lenses at him and his fans. Link believed that as long as he continued to win, he would receive more media attention and more support from fans.

  His opponent in the semifinals was a hairy-chested Irishman, a technical boxer who excelled in defense.

  To win a fight quickly against a technical boxer, you either need to have better skills than your opponent, or be strong enough and fast enough. If you don't have these three, the fight will be difficult.

  Link is strong enough, fast enough, and has superb skills, so it is relatively easy to deal with this type of boxer. He can just use heavy punches to break through the opponent's defense.

  In this round, he knocked out his opponent three times in just 1 minute and 48 seconds and successfully advanced to the finals.

  His opponent in the final was a black boxer named John Stevens.

  John Stevens, 20 years old, was the super middleweight champion of the Florida division of the U.S. U-19 National Boxing Championship last year. He is ranked 18th among the national amateur super middleweight boxers. He has a record of 20 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw in 23 amateur competitions. He is also one of the seeds for the Florida division championship in this year's Golden Gloves Championship.

  Judging from the data, he is a very tough opponent and it is quite difficult to knock him out.

  "Link, John Stevens is strong, has a powerful punch, and has a lot of experience in competitions. His overall strength is not worse than yours. When you fight him, don't deliberately pursue a KO rate. The most important thing is to get enough points first and win the game."

  Coach West said as he put down his notebook.

  "I understand! I'll be careful."

  Link hit the protective gear on his head with his boxing gloves and walked quickly to the boxing ring.

  (End of this chapter)