“Next, we have our famous boxing commentator, Mr. Mason!” The talk show host waved his hand, and the camera pointed towards the entrance of the stage. Mason appeared there, dressed in a white suit, and smiled and waved to the audience below the stage before walking over to sit on the sofa opposite the host.
The host started with a few jokes to liven up the atmosphere around the stage before moving on to the main topic. “Mr. Mason, you are regarded as the ‘Light of Betting’ in professional boxing. When it comes to predicting match results, surely you have your unique methods? You can tell me secretly, I won’t tell them!”
The host pointed towards the live audience, and the American humor earned a burst of laughter from the audience.
Mason spread his hands and answered, “There really isn’t any secret. You have to observe. Observe the distinguishing feature of every boxer, find their strengths and weaknesses, and then start analyzing…”
“It sounds simple, but we all know it is a difficult thing to do. I always mix up the two boxers, let alone remember their distinguishing features,” the host interrupted.
“For an ordinary person, it is somewhat difficult, so I’ll teach everyone a simple method, and that is to follow my blog, follow me on Twitter, and follow me on Facebook. That way, you will know exactly where to place your bets!” Mason said with a smile.
At that moment, something black suddenly flew into the view of the camera, heading straight for Mason.
Bang! The black thing hit Mason in the face.
It was a black leather shoe. It fell to the ground, revealing Mason’s face, and the clear black shoe mark that was left there.
“You liar, you actually have the guts to sit here and talk! To h*ll with this ‘Light of Betting’ nonsense, I placed bets according to your judgment in Taylor’s previous two matches, and I’ve lost 10,000 dollars!” A big bearded man from the audience below the stage shouted, still bent over from hurling his shoe.
A commotion began to build in the audience. As the crowd’s attention shifted towards the big, bearded, shoe-throwing man, someone even whistled and cheered him on. Maybe they lost money for the same reason.
The talk show recording was forced to a halt. Security guards appeared and hauled the shoe-throwing man out. Mason, on the other hand, left the scene with a face that was gloomy, and still partially covered by the shoe mark.
Blame me for losing money? And you actually threw a shoe at me! I don’t see you sharing your winnings with me! Mason thought furiously.
By his side, a worker said apologetically, “Mr. Mason, we’ve caught the guy who threw the shoe, and he refused to apologize, so we’ve already called the police!”
“Called the police? Oh my God, why did you call the police!” Mason’s heart was confused and disconcerted.
“That guy messed up our show recording, so it’s natural for us to call the police. Punish him, set an example. If not, more will come to disrupt our recordings! We will also report this incident to the public and let everyone know the consequences for messing up the recordings of our program!” the worker said, believing he was upholding justice.
“No. Don’t let the public know about this incident. It would be even better if the police weren’t involved.” Mason suddenly looked like a frosted eggplant.
“Why? Mr. Mason, you are the victim here. Don’t you want the guy who was violent to you to get what he deserves?” the worker asked.
“I don’t want to escalate this type of incident. By then, everyone would know that I was hit in the face by a shoe thrown by the audience,” Mason said immediately.
I think you just don’t want people to know that you were hit in the face because your predictions were inaccurate, and you made someone lose money! Then you would no longer be the “Light of Betting.” This is related to your livelihood, huh… The worker thought in his mind.
…
“In yesterday’s heavyweight boxing match, Kevin Taylor faced off with his third opponent since making his comeback, the ‘Crocodile’ Martinez. The result was Kevin Taylor KO’ing his opponent in just one round.”
“Kevin Taylor only took two minutes and 21 seconds to tame the ‘Raptor’ Harris. Harris is the heavyweight boxer whom the International Boxing Federation has supported over the past few years, and he is also one of the strongest young boxers in the heavyweight class. A lot of people saw him as a future boxing champion, but it looks like Harris’s road to becoming a boxing champion is still very long!”
“This just in. Kevin Taylor easily defeated the ‘Matador’ Hood. Hood used to be the championship belt holder of the WBA and WBO light heavyweight class, and after he moved himself up to the heavyweight class, he achieved five straight wins. But when faced Taylor, Hood didn’t even make it past the first round. Looks like Hood needs more time to adapt after making the leap from light heavyweight to heavyweight.”
“Kevin Taylor faced a boxing champion in his sixth match since making his comeback. A past IBF heavyweight boxing champion, nicknamed ‘The Giant Beast’ Romonsolov. Romonsolov is 2.13 meters tall, his arm span is 2.16 meters, and he weighs as much as 320 pounds. In front of him, Taylor was like a midget, but even so, Romonsolov only made it to the second round. However, Romonsolov is the only opponent that hasn’t gotten knocked out in the first round since Taylor made his comeback.”
“Kevin Taylor’s winning streak continues. In yesterday’s match, he defeated ‘The Thug’ Wallace, maintaining his winning streak since making his comeback. Wallace won the WBO championship belt back in March, and was successfully crowned as the WBO boxing champion. Although he only defended the championship belt for two months, one cannot deny that Wallace was the highest valued opponent Taylor has faced since making his comeback.”
“Although ‘The Bull’ Thompson never received the title of boxing champion, it is undeniable that over the years, he has been one of the best heavyweight boxers in the world. However, just yesterday, when he faced-off against Kevin Taylor, he was beaten like a child. The match lasted a mere one minute and 43 seconds, and was anything but suspenseful. Faced with the ferocious attacks of Taylor, Thompson could only retreat, retreat, and then get knocked down…”
…
Suddenly, Taylor had a nine-match winning streak, and he had defeated most of his opponents in the first round.
No one believed that Taylor’s wins were coincidences anymore, and even an idiot could tell that Taylor had returned to his former condition. Regardless who his opponent was, he settled them in the first round.
In truth, according to Dai Li’s judgment, Taylor was stronger than he was ten years ago. He had the body of a 27-year-old and the experience of a 32-year-old. That was far better than the body and experience of a 22-year-old.
Taylor was already an S+ grade boxer, and if everything went according to plan, he was destined to become the conqueror of the heavyweight boxing world. So far, Taylor was doing just that.
In Dai Li’s training center, Taylor passed a check to Dai Li.
“Coach Li, I promised you before. After paying off my debt with the bank, 20 percent of my income belongs to you!”
Taylor had already cleared the 20 million dollar debt he owed to the bank, and he also broke out of the bankruptcy protection state. The moment Taylor cleared the debt, 20 percent of everything Taylor earned belonged to Dai Li.
“Boxers sure make a lot of money. From just match bonuses alone, you were successful in clearing your debt in such a short amount of time. Boxing is certainly worthy of being called ‘the sport with the most bonus.'” Dai Li couldn’t help but sigh.
Comprehensively speaking, boxing was definitely the sport with the highest match bonus. The match bonus of a famous boxer could last a person an entire lifetime. Even a rookie or a boxer from a lower level league could have a decent income.
Other sports were not as good, and the athletes who made a lot of money were usually the high-level and famous athletes. The obscure and low-level athletes’ income was pitiful.
For example, in golf, the income of famous golf players were at the top of the pyramid, but their income mainly relied on advertising endorsements and sponsorships. Unpopular golf players who were at the bottom did not get advertising endorsements. They did not have match bonuses, so they might be even worse off than the ball boy working at the golf course.
Tennis was considered a worldwide sport; however, the prize money for the singles champion in the most influential Wimbledon Tennis Open was only around two million pounds. For the snooker Masters held in Wembley, the prize money didn’t even reach 200,000 pounds. Compared to those, the bonus of a boxing match could be millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of dollars. The numbers were astronomical.
Early boxing matches were barely restricted by any rules; opponents could really be beaten to death in a match. It was normal for boxers to die in the boxing ring, and there were even bookmakers who set up a “Life and death bet,” which allowed people to place bets on whether the boxers would die. Occasionally, there would be psychopathic boxers who would still hurl that extra punch to kill their opponent, even if their opponent had surrendered.
Boxers back then truly placed their lives on the line in a match. Even if a boxer didn’t die in a match, they could be disabled for life. If the prize money for such cruel matches wasn’t high, who would participate? It was also because of this historical reason that the bonus for boxing matches was higher than other sports.
Similar situations also appeared in car racing. In the past, the accident rate of car races was very high. Cars colliding with each other could cause an explosion. The racers of that time also raced with their lives on the line, so car racing was also very lucrative. As the saying goes, rewards allure men to brave danger.
Dai Li put the check in his pocket and asked, “Who’s your next opponent? When does the match start?”
Taylor shook his head. “Even I don’t know who my next opponent is. Now it looks like no one wants to fight me, so even the boxing associations will have trouble arranging a match.”
Although boxers were violent, they were not idiots. Back when Taylor had just returned, everyone thought that Taylor was old and weak. They wanted to use Taylor as a stepping stone, and anyone with a little bit of strength couldn’t wait to have a match against Taylor.
Now, even ordinary audiences knew that Taylor had recovered his former strength and returned to being the Taylor who could easily KO his opponent in the first round. Who would still want to fight Taylor? Being crushed by their opponent when they finally managed to get a match; no boxer wanted something like that.
Professional boxing matches were arranged by the boxing confederations, and boxers of lower level didn’t have much of a choice in who they had to fight. Not only did they not have any space for negotiation, but the boxer also had to be grateful towards the boxing confederations, thanking them for the chance to fight in a match and appear before the camera.
Famous and reputable boxers, on the other hand, had some autonomy in determining who and when they fought. If both were big name boxers, the arranged fight might be put off a few dozen times. A boxer might feel that the time of the fight was inappropriate, or they didn’t like the venue of the match, or their wife was having her birthday, or there was a parent-teacher meeting with his son, or they had a dentist appointment next week, or they had to bring their dog to the doggy beauty salon…
The more famous the boxer, the more privileges they had. For the world’s top professional boxers, fighting two matches in a year would make them a model worker. The number of matches a top-class professional boxer fought in four years might actually be fewer than the number of matches an amateur boxer experienced in a single Olympic Games.
The championship belt holders of the boxing confederations were naturally the people with the most privileges. According to boxing rules, the 15 boxers with the highest accumulated points could challenge for the championship belt. Since there was only one championship belt, though, it was impossible for the boxing champion to accept the challenges of all 15 boxers. Thus, the boxing champion had the power to choose his opponent. He could pick an opponent among all those who challenged him. Some boxing champions would choose the weaker challengers just to protect their championship belt.
Many challengers would discuss and negotiate with the other 14 challengers when they wanted to challenge for the championship belt. The other 14 would not send out a challenge at the same time, giving the boxer a chance to challenge the boxing champion. The negotiation process alone took a lot of time; moreover, there was the process of arranging the match. That was why one could not view many of those so-called boxing championship matches.
…
“If no one dares to fight you, does that mean that you can only wait?” Dai Li asked.
“I’ve decided to challenge for the championship belt!” Taylor said with steel-like determination. “I’ve already made it into the top 15 in rankings for all four of the big boxing leagues, and I have the qualifications to challenge for the championship belt, so I have already challenged all four of the championship belt holders of the four big boxing leagues.”
“And the result? Did those boxing champions agree to it?” Dai Li asked immediately.
“That sly Highfield found an excuse to avoid a fight!” Taylor clenched his fist in anger.
If Taylor were to name the opponent he wanted to fight most, it would be Highfield. Back then, Taylor bit Highfield’s ear and became the laughing stock of the entire world. Taylor also lost his WBA championship belt because of that. And now, Taylor had returned to his peak and wanted to take his revenge on Highfield and regain his championship belt.
The only problem was that Highfield did not want to fight against Taylor. In truth, Highfield had only fought in two matches in these two years. He used rules to avoid fights against strong opponents, hence, retaining his championship belt.
The truth was that Highfield had always been like that. Not only did he have strength, he was also good at scheming. In his matches, if he could beat his opponent, he would beat his opponent, but if he couldn’t, he would drag it to a draw. Highfield might have been the boxing champion who had the most draws among the heavyweight boxing champions.
Taylor then continued, “Although Highfield avoided the fight, Hopkins agreed to a fight against me!”
“Hopkins? ‘The Iron Professor’ Hopkins?” Dai Li asked immediately.
“Yes, that’s him. The WBO and IBF championship belt holder, ‘The Iron Professor’ Hopkins!” Taylor nodded seriously.
“That’s good, this is a boss fight!” Dai Li’s expression also became serious.