Domination in America, Starting from being a Boxing Champion-Chapter 939 - 657: Taylor’s Reply

The opponent, Leonard Wright, had previously secured championships from four major Super Welterweight organizations, making him a prominent boxing star.

This year, he moved up to the Middleweight division, defeating numerous international boxers from the WBA organization to earn the right to challenge him.

As the reigning champion in the Middleweight division, he could technically postpone the match, only accepting one fight per year.

However, after discussing with Bob Arum, he planned to move up to the Super Middleweight division in the second half of next year. Before that, he wanted to participate in a few more fights to earn more money and fame.

Bob Arum had become more agreeable after he secured the four major Middleweight Golden Belts and did not oppose his suggestion.

During his match with Leonard Wright, Link ran into some challenges.

Leonard Wright was a true defensive master, having joined the professional boxing ring in 1990. He participated in 53 matches and only lost three times.

In every match, whenever he raised his hands forward to block, his opponents were rendered helpless—including World Boxing Champions such as Felix Trinidad and Shane Mosley, who lost against him due to their inability to break through his defense.

When Link faced Leonard Wright, he launched consecutive heavy punches to aggressively attack for one round, broke through the opponent's defense three times, knocked him down twice, but failed to KO him in the first round.

At the 23rd second of the second round, he broke through the opponent's defense again, successfully knocking him down, causing him to stay down for 10 seconds and fail to get back up.

This match sparked heated discussions in the media.

Over the past year, Link had participated in 15 matches, all of which ended in the first round. Even when facing Bernard Hopkins, he secured a victory within one round.

Now, against Leonard Wright, he couldn't KO him in the first round.

Leonard Wright's reputation in the boxing ring soared. Many believed his strength surpassed Bernard Hopkins, Jermain Taylor, and Trinidad, as he lasted 200 seconds under Link's attacks—a feat they couldn't achieve.

Leonard Wright is now considered the second-best in the Middleweight division under Link.

Apart from discussions about Leonard, the media also speculated that Link's dominance in the Middleweight division had made him lax in training, potentially leading to a decline in his performance. Some even pointed to Link's new album, "The Fighter," as evidence that he was focusing on entering the music industry.

Hopkins, during an interview, ridiculed Link's less-than-stellar performance in the match, criticizing him for relying solely on heavy punches to break defenses, calling him a brute. He said Link's style lacked the flexibility and technical diversity it once had.

He claimed that if he were the opponent in this match, he'd be highly confident in defeating Link.

A journalist asked whether Hopkins would fight for the title of challenger for the World Boxing Champion from another organization to reclaim the four major Golden Belts lost to Link.

Hopkins did not respond.

After reading these media comments, Link also refrained from responding. The reason he took until the second round to win the match was due to his promotional strategy with Bob Arum.

In the past 15 matches, he won by KO in the first round each time. People had grown numb to such news, barely showing much emotional reaction or spending time paying attention to it.

By suddenly taking until the second round to secure a victory, people were curious about why the match turned out differently and wanted to learn more about its process. This increased public interest in Link, which also boosted PPV sales and revenue.

The advantages were numerous.

As for his initial claim of KO'ing all Middleweight boxers within the first round, now that he KO'd Leonard Wright in the second round, did this count as breaking his promise?

While the media discussed this, some believed it was a breach, while others thought it wasn't.

When Link made the statement, Leonard Wright had not yet entered the Middleweight division.

Even if it was considered a breach, it wouldn't have much impact. Link was already the Middleweight champion, with a record of 16 wins, 16 KOs. With such achievements, no one could doubt his strength.

Regardless of media or fan debates, the outcome brought Link more benefits than drawbacks.

After the match, Link's earnings from this fight totaled 16.8 million US Dollars, including 850,000 PPV sales, generating 59.5 million US Dollars in total revenue. A 20% share amounted to about 12 million US Dollars, and a 15% ticket sales share amounted to approximately 2.2 million US Dollars.

Deducting Top Rank Promotions' percentage, Link ultimately received 16.8 million US Dollars.

After receiving this payment, he chose not to repatriate the funds. Instead, he registered a venture capital company named 'Beethoven' in the Tax Haven, Cayman Islands, and contributed 20 million US Dollars in capital.

Through Golden Oak, he acquired shares in Hong Kong Island's Golden Shell Asset Management Company, becoming a shareholder with 12.4% ownership. This raised Golden Shell Investments' valuation to 165 million US Dollars, including shares of JD.com, Tencent, and New World Film and Television.

After the capital injection, he arranged for Golden Shell's investment managers to contact Chinese-American entrepreneur Chen Shijun.

Chen Shijun is the founder of YouTube, which launched this May. The website currently hosts about 100,000 videos, with approximately 154,000 users and daily clicks of about 500,000—a figure far less competitive compared to platforms like MSN Video and Google Video.

To accelerate YouTube's growth, it required more capital to purchase equipment, improve video streaming services, and address copyright issues.

Link invested 11.5 million US Dollars through Golden Shell Company, acquiring 18% of YouTube's shares, becoming one of its angel investors.

Of the remaining funds, some were allocated to JD Mall, while others were used to purchase more Tencent stock. Currently, Golden Shell Investments holds 4.92% of Tencent shares. Further acquisitions would require approval and disclosure by Tencent's board of directors.

Link had no intention of making Golden Shell Investments publicly known too early, so for now, he maintained the 4.92% Tencent shareholding, allocating the remaining capital for potential investment in companies like Ali, Amazon, Google, or the newly established social networking website Facebook.

Before the financial crisis ended in 2009, there were plenty of suitable projects for investment as long as funding was available.

"Mr. Link, you have a letter."

Inside the Bay Villa, the housekeeper and maid, Mrs. Simmons, walked in holding a letter.

"Oh?"

Link set down the materials in his hands, took the letter, and glanced at the postmark. The letter came from a suburban villa in Nashville, Tennessee, and the sender was Taylor Swift.

Back in July, while listening to a country music radio program, he suddenly heard a familiar voice. The singer was a 16-year-old girl named Taylor, performing a song called "Lucky You," which she wrote herself.

After hearing the song, Link sent a letter as a fan to the radio station, hoping they would forward it to Taylor.

He hadn't expected much from it, but a few months later, he received a reply from Taylor.

In the letter, Taylor expressed her happiness that he liked her song, said she would continue to work hard to create even better music, and wished him a happy life and successful work.

The handwriting was from Taylor herself—lively and cheerful, reflecting her joy.

Link smiled lightly and took out a piece of paper to write his second letter to her, saying he was thrilled to receive a reply from such a big star—it was a delightful surprise. He complimented her voice, calling it soothing and healing, encouraging her to keep creating beautiful music and saying he looked forward to her releasing an album.

He also asked a few questions about country music, such as which artists or songs she liked.

With Christmas approaching, Link visited a record shop in Los Angeles and bought a black vinyl record of country music queen Shania Twain's 1998 album "Come On Over."

The album features one of Shania Twain's signature tracks, "You're Still The One."

He packed the letter and the record, sending it off via FedEx. If lucky, it might reach Nashville before Christmas.

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