Domination in America, Starting from being a Boxing Champion

After their conversation, Ivanka returned to New York to work, where it was more convenient for her to handle her business. As she was leaving, Ivanka mentioned that if he couldn't return to New York on weekends or holidays, she would fly to Los Angeles to be with him. Link wanted to say it wasn't necessary since her presence didn't mean they would share a bed, making her visit no different from not coming at all. At the same time, he also found her condition of marriage before sex a bit peculiar. Logically speaking, even in the somewhat conservative regions of the United States and South Korea, people don't really care about how many men their future spouses have been with. Why would Ivanka use this as an excuse? Or was she telling the truth, that she had never been with a man before? Every time he thought about this, he felt a bit conflicted. After talking with Taylor, he had planned to end this awkward romantic relationship with Ivanka and fully embrace being a playboy, but hearing this made him hesitate to let go. Although there are many beautiful women in the world, capable women like Ivanka are rare. Giving her up seemed like no subsequent choice could compare to her. After wrestling with this for several days, Link had to admit that Ivanka was very good at "fishing." Ever since they started Link Music together, he had been hooked by her, caught tightly in her net. — In its third week, "The Expendables" earned $12.75 million at the box office, dropping to third place with a North American cumulative total of $74.47 million. By this week, "The Expendables" had been released concurrently in over thirty countries overseas, accumulating $104 million at the box office. The global box office is expected to exceed $300 million. Although its performance did not match earlier releases like "Inception," "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1," and "Toy Story 3," it was still one of the more successful films at the end of the year. The film's cool action scenes and Link's charismatic role garnered a lot of fans internationally after its release. Chris Liu, Sasaki Nozomi, and Yui-chan even called him specifically to say how cool he was in the movie, perfectly playing the role of a handsome, skilled, and fickle man. Alright, they were teasing him. "Cut!" "Next scene!" After the "Captain America" crew moved to Los Angeles, shooting progressively smoothed out but also became more monotonous. Working eight hours a day, from nine in the morning to four in the afternoon, he was not against working overtime, but in Hollywood, the overtime wages were too high, and the crew did not want to increase expenses unnecessarily. With his free time, he spent most of it boxing, making his muscles stronger and increasing his weight to 181 pounds. Apart from the demands of filming, he was also preparing for next year's light heavyweight competition. With the increase in muscle mass, the coordination of muscle groups, mobility, and reaction speeds also faced certain declines. He needed to adapt to his current muscles and punching weight before the competition and try to increase his speed. If he could maintain the speed of the super middleweight class in the light heavyweight competition, it would be a tremendous advantage for him. In martial arts, speed is paramount, and the same applies to boxing. After gaining weight, he also tested his punching power. His right punch reached a maximum of 1650 pounds, and his left 1500 pounds. That was about twenty pounds heavier than tests in May and June. This was good news for him, boosting his confidence in winning the match a bit more. The only one probably dissatisfied with his weight gain was De La Hoya. With their fight next month, since they were not in the same weight class, the match was inherently uneven. The requirement for weight at the time of the match was not very strict, so both could gain weight before the fight. De La Hoya, standing at 182 cm, planned to gain ten pounds before the fight, initially thinking that he could match Link's weight. However, seeing Link's increased weight, his muscles became even more robust and solid, with no signs of bad muscle, he looked formidable. Every time Hoyle saw him, he would grumble accusing him of fearing loss, which was why he secretly bulked up before the match. In mid-November, the American Music Awards arrived, and Link took time to attend the ceremony at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, the same venue as the MTV Awards. The singers participating were almost the same as well. Since the criteria for the American Music Awards are based on the Billboard magazine and the Billboard website's comprehensive data, including album and digital single sales, radio play, internet streaming, social media activity, and tour ticket sales. Simply put, it's a competition of popularity in the U.S., album sales, online activity, and concert ticket sales. In all these aspects, Link was undeniably number one. His third album "The Woman I Love" sold 4.68 million copies in the U.S., and about 20.50 million globally, the only album in 2010 with U.S. sales exceeding four million and global sales over twenty million. In second place was Taylor's "Last Kiss," with U.S. sales of 3.85 million and about 9.50 million globally. Third place, Eminem's "Recovery," with U.S. sales of 3.23 million. Fourth place, the pre-war goddess band's "Need You Now" at 3.02 million. Fifth place, Justin Bieber's "My World 2.0" with sales of 2.32 million. Sixth place, British singer Susan Boyle's "The Gift," with U.S. sales of 1.72 million. Seventh place, Lady Gaga's "The Fame" at 1.59 million. Eighth place, Aubrey Drake's "Thank Me Later" at 1.21 million. Ninth place, Wiz Khalifa's "Deal Or No Deal" at 1.19 million. In tenth place, Kesha's "Animal" sold 1.14 million copies. Among the artists ranked 11 to 20, soul singer Sade with "Soldier of Love", Usher's "Raymond vs. Raymond," Katy Perry's September release "Teenage Dream," Miley Cyrus's "Can't Be Tamed," and Selena's "A Year Without Rain" all boasted sales over 800,000 copies in the United States within the year. Due to Link's third album being far ahead of his peers, it was unmatched in media and online popularity. At the American Music Awards ceremony, he also won four major awards by a large margin, including Artist of the Year, Best Male Pop Vocal Artist, Best Pop Album, and Best Adult Contemporary Artist, making him the biggest winner at the awards. Eminem won Best Rap Artist and Best Rap Album for "Recovery." Usher also bagged two awards, for Best R&B Album and Artist. Lady Gaga only secured the award for Best Female Pop Vocal Artist, while Taylor, Carrie Underwood, and the Pre-War Goddess Band shared the country music category's Best Female Artist, Best Album, and Best Group. Justin Bieber received the Best New Artist of the Year award. Wiz Khalifa, Selena, Lana Del Rey, Katy Perry, and Bruno Mars were all nominated, but the competition was too intense for them to clinch any awards. After the American Music Awards, Link returned to the film set to continue shooting. In mid-November, he traveled with the crew of "Captain America" to Britain, Sweden, Norway, and other locations for filming. After being busy for over two months, he completed the main part of Captain America's shooting, with the remaining post-production to be done in Los Angeles studios, approximately ten more days of filming. In December, he returned to the United States to attend a boxing match with De La Hoya at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. Announced at the beginning of the year, after a year of promotion, the match was well-known nationally and successfully sparked the interest of boxing fans. To add intrigue to the match, he and Hoyle performed two songs as a pre-fight warm-up and started the match after the performance ended. The fight lasted three rounds; Hoyle's clever tactics during the match prolonged the fight rather than Link intentionally holding back. With his lightweight speed, superb boxing skills, and high-frequency Quick Fist strategy, he made the fight extremely challenging. Eventually, Link took advantage of Hoyle's waning stamina, trapped him in a corner, and landed two consecutive punches to his face, successfully knocking him out and winning the match. Due to effective promotion, the fight's Pay-Per-View (PPV) sales reached 125 million US dollars, ranking second on the Forbes boxing PPV revenue chart. The first place was the May 2007 match between Hoyle and Mayweather, with PPV sales of 136 million US dollars. The third place was on June 8, 2002, Lennox vs. Tyson, with PPV sales of 112 million US dollars. The fourth place, on June 28, 1997, Mike Tyson vs. Holyfield, had PPV sales of 100.2 million US dollars (second fight). The fifth place was on August 19, 1995, Mike Tyson vs. Peter McNeeley, with PPV sales of 96 million US dollars. The sixth place, on April 19, 1991, Holyfield vs. George Foreman, had PPV sales of 80 million US dollars. The seventh place was on November 9, 1996, Mike Tyson vs. Holyfield, with PPV sales of 77.9 million US dollars (first fight). Although the PPV revenue for this fight was high, it did not surpass the one between Hoyle and Mayweather. Afterward, "Ring Magazine" commented on this fight, stating that although both fighters were big names and the match was exciting, it lacked suspense. Link was too strong in the Super Middleweight division, unbeatable with great strength, speed, and excellent technique, making him the most renowned and formidable boxer in the ring. While Hoyle was also a top-tier boxer, his age, height, weight, and punch power were inferior to Link's, and his recent record of two losses out of three fights severely dampened fans' confidence in him. The betting odds were significantly against Hoyle at 1 to 65, even higher than the odds for Tyson's fight against Douglas. Many could guess the outcome even before the match, which caused a decrease in boxing fans' willingness to pay to watch, resulting in only 125 million US dollars in PPV revenue. However, the fight did well on video platforms like YouTube, with 1.85 million viewers opting to pay to watch, bringing Link and Hoyle around 20 million US dollars in shared revenue. Including ticket sales and other earnings, Link and Dynasty Sports totaled 72 million US dollars in revenue from this match, while Hoyle and Golden Boy Promotions made about 38 million US dollars, making the total prize money for this event 110 million US dollars, marking Link's first match to earn over 70 million US dollars. His earnings from boxing that year also exceeded 200 million US dollars. After the boxing match, Link led his touring team to continue performing concerts in Europe. Over the course of just over two months, they held 52 concerts. In February, he brought his tour back to North America, performing 16 shows across the United States and Canada, concluding successfully at a concert in Times Square, New York. This tour, which started in October of 2009, spanned 18 months and took place in 82 countries and regions worldwide, totaling 166 concerts. It sold 4.43 million tickets globally, averaging 26,000 people per show, making him the singer with the highest ticket sales in a global tour over the past decade. He outperformed top artists and bands such as Super Boys, Backstreet Boys, Madonna, Britney Spears, and Lady Gaga, even surpassing MJ's 'Dangerous World Tour' to set a new Guinness World Record. The 'Dangerous World Tour' in 1993 had 69 shows with 3.5 million ticket sales, averaging 50,000 people per show. Link's record was for holding 166 concerts worldwide in 18 months, selling 4.43 million tickets, surpassing MJ in both the number of regions and total ticket sales. Afterward, the media nicknamed him "workhorse," joking about the high frequency and speed of his concerts, noting that he never seemed tired, connecting one show to the next, sometimes holding four concerts in a week. Despite the fast pace of his concerts, each performance was stable; there were no lip-syncing, voice cracks, or off-key issues, and he never cut corners with his fans. This performance also earned praise from both the media and fans, with many artists publicly expressing their intention to follow his lead by first getting fit before embarking on a global tour.