Domination in America, Starting from being a Boxing Champion

His album sales surpassed ten million globally within two months of release, making it the highest-selling Chinese-language album last year.

The second round of album revenue distribution arrived in mid-February, totaling over 18 million US Dollars after taxes. This was just the income from album sales; the ringtone revenue share would be even higher.

Currently, in ringtone subscription revenue, only "Rat Loves Rice" and "Two Butterflies" could compare to a few of his songs. Eight songs from his second album were in the top 20 subscription rankings, and a total of 18 songs from both albums were in the top 100.

Due to the massive success of his consecutive albums, Link has had a tremendous impact on the domestic music industry. "Southern Weekend" specially published an article marveling at Link's reputation as the 'Middle God,' stating that even the 'Southern Emperor' Hoyle couldn't guarantee a victory against him.

On the eve of the Lantern Festival, Link returned to Hundong Province with Zhang Zilin to celebrate the Spring Festival with family and also participated in the province's Lantern Festival gala, performing self-accompanied renditions of "When You Are Old" and "A Steady Happiness" on stage.

After the Lantern Festival, Link and Zhang Zilin returned to Beijing.

Link resumed training to prepare for a match, while Zhang Zilin attended classes and underwent training as well.

By the end of February, Link flew to Las Vegas in the United States to participate in the second round of the Boxing King Challenge Tournament. His opponent for this match was Felix Trinidad, the Puerto Rican boxing champion ranked second in WBA middleweight and sixth in overall middleweight rankings.

Felix Trinidad, Black, 32 years old this year, height 180cm, arm span 184cm.

Amateur record: 51 wins, 6 losses. He was the Puerto Rican boxing champion for five consecutive years.

He entered professional boxing in 1990, starting out as a welterweight boxer.

In January 1994, he defeated Camacho by points to win the IBF welterweight Golden Belt.

He successfully defended the IBF welterweight Golden Belt 12 consecutive times afterward.

In September 1999, he defeated De La Hoya by controversial points to win the WBC welterweight Golden Belt, becoming the dominant figure in the welterweight division at the time.

He moved up to super welterweight in 2000 and successfully won the IBF super welterweight Golden Belt.

In 2001, he moved up again to middleweight and defeated former WBA middleweight champion William Joppy in two rounds, becoming the WBA middleweight champion.

Unfortunately, in September of the same year, during the middleweight champion title unification fight, he faced 'Executioner' Hopkins and lost his WBA middleweight world champion Golden Belt.

Felix Trinidad's current professional record: 43 fights, 42 wins, 1 loss.

Before meeting Hopkins, he was undefeated, with 32 victories by KO. He is an exceptionally strong boxer.

He is also one of the obstacles for Link on the path to becoming the dominant middleweight champion.

Before the match, Link carefully studied his opponent's fight videos. Trinidad is skilled in offense, with a maximum punch force from both fists not less than 800 pounds, flexible speed, and solid technical skills. Even top-tier boxers like Hoyle would lose against him.

It wouldn't be easy to defeat him.

Winning in one round would be even more challenging.

The coaching team's suggestion was to counter Trinidad's offensive strength with polished defensive techniques. With Link's defensive skills, this wouldn't be difficult to achieve.

However, focusing on defense during the match would mean losing the opportunity to strike first, making it impossible to win by KO in the first round.

He would also lose the bet he made with "Boxing Ring" magazine.

Thus, the passive defense strategy was deemed unfeasible.

After thoroughly analyzing Trinidad's fight footage, Link decided to take a head-on approach, testing whose fists were stronger—his opponent's or his own, faster and harder.

Before the match, casinos across Las Vegas set up betting propositions based on the match's outcome.

A Link victory paid 1.35, while his opponent's victory paid 1.62, showing a narrow difference in odds between the two.

However, the odds for a bet on Link winning in the first round were much higher, at 5.5. This indicated that the casinos did not believe he could defeat Trinidad in the first round.

The odds for his opponent KO'ing him in one round were as high as 10.2.

If he dared to cheat by betting a million on his own loss, he could turn around and earn 10 million.

Before the match, Link instructed his agent Sean Gibbons to place a bet of one million US Dollars at MGM Casino, gambling on himself to win in the first round.

The match day was lively, with over 8,000 spectators in attendance.

The number of spectators was slightly lower than previous matches, not due to a lack of popularity, but because MGM Grand Hotel's ticket prices were expensive—the ordinary seats cost 220 US Dollars, while the front-row seats went for tens of thousands.

Moreover, seating capacity was limited.

The spectators who came were mostly wealthy individuals, such as tourists and gamblers in the casinos.

This match was also broadcast live by ESPN, meaning Link would receive a portion of PPV revenue afterward.

The match was held at 6 PM.

As the match began, Trinidad quickly launched an offensive, leveraging his heavy punch advantage and fiercely attacking Link's arm defenses with one punch after another.

The audience was thrilled to see Trinidad going all out and cheered excitedly. Some even hurled racial slurs like 'yellow-skinned monkey' and 'Huaxia guy,' attacking Link verbally. Most of these insults came from Black spectators.

When some saw Link only defending and not counterattacking, the jeers grew louder, calling him an overrated fraud.

Bam-bam-whack!

Trinidad threw punches at Link's arms, aiming first for his head, and then targeting both sides of his ribs.

But Link's reaction time was swift, with his shake-and-flash and backward dodging speed being exceptional. Even Trinidad's 'hit high, punch low' combination punches couldn't land solidly on his body.