“Franco, what are you doing here?â€
When Franco walked into the small living room, Link and Nora Duval were having tea and chatting, with a folder they had just looked at on the table.
Seeing the folder, Franco's face suddenly changed, and he thought to himself, "Oh no."
Today, his assistant told him that Nora had come from New York. When he got home in the afternoon, he only saw Nora's luggage but not Nora herself. He couldn't get through on the phone, and when he asked Nora's assistant, the assistant vaguely said that she had gone to visit friends.
He knew it was a lie. Nora's social circle was in New York, and she had no friends in Miami.
He had a bad feeling at the time and came over to find Nora at Link's place.
"Hi, Link!"
Franco forced a smile, greeted Link, and pulled Nora out, almost bumping into James who was walking in.
James was startled and quickly moved aside to make way for the couple. Looking at the couple's back, James found that today's incident seemed to be beyond his imagination.
"Link, what are they doing?"
James looked at Link and asked.
"Maybe they're showing off their love!"
Link smiled slightly and picked up the contract on the table to look at it again.
--
"Nora, I told you not to poach my talent, or I'll really be angry with you. Why did you do this again?"
Outside Baker's shop, Franco pulled Nora to the door and said.
Nora tidied her hair and saw her husband wearing a wrinkled shirt and sandy sandals, looking like a homeless person picking up trash on the beach not far away. He looked much worse than when he was in New York. If Old Duval saw him, he might kick him out of the house.
"How did you come out dressed like this? Have you been dressed like this all this time in Miami?"
"Nora, don't change the subject. We're talking about work. You promised me you wouldn't interfere with Link, but you didn't keep your word."
Franco said with a stern face, dissatisfied.
Nora shook her head, pulled a chair and sat down, and said, "Franco, did you sign with Link?"
"No, but..."
"If he didn't sign with you, he's not a boxer under Dynasty Promotion. After Link won the American qualifier championship, many companies approached him and wanted to sign him. I'm the president of Major Events, so there's nothing wrong with me coming to talk to him, is there?"
Nora said calmly and unhurriedly.
Franco covered his forehead and thought for a moment. It seemed that there was indeed no problem.
Nora was the president of Major Events and was also responsible for signing boxers. It seemed that she had done nothing wrong by coming to sign Link. Instead, he had rushed over and interrupted their conversation, which seemed a bit impulsive.
"Okay, Nora, how was your conversation with Link?"
"Not bad!"
Nora saw her husband's face change and smiled again, "But Link didn't agree to sign with me."
"Really?"
"Yes, Link wants more than 70% of the match share, which is too high for us to meet."
Nora shrugged.
Franco laughed and said to Nora affectionately, "Honey, you should look at the recent news and see how they evaluate Link. They say he's the best amateur boxer and the biggest surprise in boxing in the next ten years. He could also become a boxing superstar like Roy Jones Jr. or Mayweather. In my opinion, he's fully qualified to get more than 70% of the match revenue share like Mayweather and the others."
Nora Duval didn't refute his words because after the contact just now, she suddenly found that Link's contract was indeed worth the price.
First, Link was a good fighter, with better amateur results than Tyson, Mayweather, Roy Jones Jr., and others, and had the potential to be a boxing superstar.
Second, Link was famous and had a good foundation. In the boxing world, few people could be like Link, who had not yet entered professional boxing or even participated in the Olympics, but was already as popular as second- and third-tier actors, even more famous than many boxing champions.
Such a person would be twice as effective in promotion and publicity in the future, saving the company a lot of money.
Third, Link was an intelligent and rational person. Most boxers were muscular and simple-minded. Many people had great potential and were good at boxing, such as Ike Ibeabuchi and Oliver McCall, who had bright futures but ended their careers early due to fighting, crime, drug use, and other problems.
Link had clear goals and knew what he wanted. Such a person was not easy to go astray and had a longer career, which made him a good partner.
Because of these points, after meeting Link, Nora really wanted to sign him and even wanted to call Old Duval to explain the situation. Unfortunately, Franco came too early and interrupted her plan.
Nora shook her head helplessly. Sometimes she felt that although Franco was not good at business, he had a good eye for people.
This Link was very likely to be a boxing superstar in the making.
However, they were husband and wife, and she didn't intend to interfere with Franco on this matter.
"Link, you guys continue talking. Major Events is out, but don't forget about us. I hope we can cooperate again in the future."
Nora reached out her hand.
"Okay!"
Link shook hands with Nora.
After seeing his wife Nora off, Franco took out a contract and handed it to Link. It was a new contract.
After returning from Havana, Franco came to Link to sign the contract, wanting to get this trump card in his hands early. However, Link was not satisfied with some of the terms in the contract and proposed several revisions, mainly in the income sharing part.
The original draft contract stated that before Link became a world champion, he and the company would split 50/50; after winning the world champion title, he and the company would split 60/40; if he could keep the champion title for more than five years, it would be 70/30, and more than ten years, 80/20.
Link's proposed revisions were: before winning any of the WBA, WBC, IBF, or WBO world champion titles, the match revenue would be split 50/50; after winning any one of them, it would be 60/40; after winning three or more, it would be 70/30; after winning two heavyweight titles, it would be 80/20; after winning five heavyweight titles, it would be 90/10.
When Franco saw those new terms, he was stunned.
It wasn't that Link's conditions were too much, but that he was stunned by Link's ambition.
On the train, he heard Link say that he wanted to win all five weight classes and four major organization titles, to become a better boxer than Holyfield.
At the time, he thought Link was bragging to increase his bargaining power, but now Link had openly written this into the contract as a condition for income sharing, indicating that Link's goal was indeed to dominate five weight classes.
Franco had to admit that Link's goal was really cool.
Other boxers thought it would be good to win one title before entering the boxing world, but Link wanted to win five weight classes and four major organization titles in one go.
If he could do that, what would the world of boxing become? Would all the boxers in the world come to challenge Link alone?
If he could really do that, Link's income per match would definitely exceed $100 million.
After a company meeting to discuss it, Franco found that modifying the terms like this was not bad. If Link had the ability to win two or three titles, or win multiple weight class titles, then Link's fame would be no less than Mayweather's, and he would deserve such a high income share.
Compared to the original, the newly revised contract only became uncertain in terms of time. Previously, it was three, five, or ten years, but now it was only calculated based on the number and level of titles.
This revision was also beneficial to the company's development. Franco came today not only to find Nora but also to finalize the contract with Link and settle the matter completely, so as not to worry about Link being signed by others all day long.
"Link, what do you think?"
"No problem."
Link nodded. The new contract was completely revised according to his own opinions, and there were no problems with the other terms.
(End of Chapter)