"Hello everyone, good afternoon. I'm your old friend Steve. God bless, after eight months away from the studio, I'm finally back here again. I miss this place, and I miss all of you. Thank God."
In the HBO TV studio, host Steve Mandanda sat in front of the large broadcasting desk, looking excitedly at the camera with tears in his eyes, as if something he loved had been lost and then regained, making him uncontrollably excited.
"Steve, control your emotions, or they'll have you continue as a field reporter. Of course, if you want to keep flirting outside, pretend I didn't say anything."
Producer Tina said through the headset.
Steve quickly restrained his emotions and said with a smile, "I think everyone knows that the Olympic Games closed in Beijing yesterday. The U.S. team won a total of 37 gold medals, 38 silver medals, 36 bronze medals, and 111 medals in total, ranking first among all participating countries.
Among them, the boxing team won 1 gold and 1 bronze. The gold medalist is our old friend, super middleweight boxer Link Baker. Wow, I'm so familiar with him.
Link and I are friends. One minute before the Golden Gloves Championship finals, I interviewed Link, and he declared that he would defeat his opponent, Andre Berto, in five rounds. That was his answer to me.
At the Havana Americas qualifier, I personally interviewed him again before the match and witnessed him becoming the Americas super middleweight champion.
I can say that I personally witnessed Link's growth, step by step, from a rookie boxer to the Golden Gloves champion, then to the Americas qualifier champion, and then to the Olympic world champion. It only took him less than half a year.
Wow, talking about this process, even as a bystander, I feel excited and happy for Link's achievements. Ladies and gentlemen in front of the TV, what do you think of Link's experience in the past six months? Doesn't it feel like an inspiring movie story?
I heard that some Hollywood production companies are collecting Link's story and preparing to make a movie based on him. I think it will definitely be a great movie."
"Don't stray too far, get to the point!"
Producer Tina said.
"Haha, today I'm bringing you the HBO Olympic special program 'Following the Champion to Watch Boxing.' Don't get too excited yet, the champion hasn't arrived. Please allow me to introduce the guests of this program."
As Steve spoke, the camera zoomed out to show a medium shot of the studio.
In the shot, two guests were sitting to Steve's left. One was a middle-aged man in a black suit with a red tie, whom Steve introduced as Doug Fisher, the editor-in-chief of "The Ring" magazine.
The other was an elderly man in gray casual clothes and a baseball cap, who was none other than Rafael Varane, the editor-in-chief of the Miami Herald.
"Welcome, Mr. Fisher. Welcome, Mr. Varane. Next, we will invite the third guest of this program."
"Link! Link!"
The hundreds of audience members in the studio shouted loudly.
"Please be quiet, please forgive me. The next guest is not Link, but he is even more famous than Link and has numerous fans worldwide. It can be said that anyone who knows boxing knows him. So who is he?"
Steve pointed to the backstage entrance and shouted,
"Please welcome the heavyweight guest of this program, Mike Tyson!"
Poof!
A puff of white smoke erupted, and a strong black man in a black suit, with a tattoo around his left eye, walked out from backstage with a swagger, grinning to reveal two gold teeth.
"Wow, Tyson!"
The audience shouted excitedly, clapping and cheering.
Tyson nodded to the audience and, at Steve's invitation, sat down on the right side of the broadcasting desk.
"Hey, rich man, why are you participating in this kind of show? Oh, I remember, you're bankrupt."
Rafael Varane slapped his forehead and said in sudden realization.
Hahaha!
The audience burst into laughter.
Everyone knew that Tyson was bankrupt. According to media reports, after retiring, Tyson spent money like water, buying many luxury cars and mansions, and also loved gambling, drugs, and alcohol, and had affairs with many women. He was once worth 500 million dollars but was recently reported to be 40 million dollars in debt, forcing him to come back and make money.
Tyson cursed, waving his fist and shouting, "Damn Rafael, why are you here? Steve, if you had told me he was here, I would never have come to this damn show."
"No, no, you would still come, after all, you haven't paid off your debts yet." Rafael joked.
"Shut your stinking mouth, Rafael. When I was a boxer, you often wrote trash comments to scold me. I couldn't hit you then, but now I'm retired, and there's no sports committee to control me. You better not let me catch you after the show today."
Tyson clenched his fist and waved it at Rafael across the broadcasting desk.
"Let's end this boring topic."
Producer Tina intervened.
"Hey, you two, please behave."
Steve received the order and quickly stopped them, saying to the camera, "Next, let's get into the topic. Today our topic is to watch boxing matches with Olympic champion Mr. Link Baker. Since he has a busy schedule, I would like to invite the three of you to talk about your impressions of Link first. Mike, please start."
Tyson adjusted his posture and said to the camera, "Link? I heard about him a long time ago, probably during the Golden Gloves Championship. I heard that he won all his matches by knockout, which is a remarkable achievement."
"Mike, have you ever knocked out your opponents in amateur matches?"
Steve interviewed.
"Of course, but very few times. Everyone knows that amateur matches have protective gear and the match time is very short, so it's very difficult to win by knockout."
Tyson clenched his fist and said.
"Yes, this also shows that Link is very powerful. It is said that his punching power is comparable to that of a top heavyweight boxer, which is very remarkable. Next is Mr. Varane."
"Wait, I haven't finished yet."
Tyson shouted at the camera, "Besides Link's punching power, I admire his style of doing things even more. He is a smart guy who knows how to use the media to create hype. When he was still participating in super middleweight amateur competitions, he dared to provoke Chris Byrd, James Toney, and Valuev, several heavyweight champions. He is really cool. I want to ask him for an autograph when he comes."
"You want his autograph? Link once said that he was also influenced by you and Roy Jones Jr. to practice boxing, and now you're asking him for an autograph, that's so interesting. Mike, are you done talking?"
Steve asked.
"Yeah, but you don't need to ask those two. They are from newspapers and often publish some garbage comments in newspapers and magazines. Listening to them is a waste of time."
Tyson looked at Rafael and Doug Fisher, the two editors-in-chief, with disdain. These two guys had said a lot of bad things about him when he was still boxing.
Rafael and Doug Fisher smiled indifferently. Their job was to criticize and praise people. Tyson was very popular before, and he had many problems. Almost all boxing commentators had criticized him, not just these two.
At Steve's request, the two talked about their impressions and evaluations of Link, naturally all good things.
At this time, Link had just become a world champion, the only gold medalist of the US boxing team, and was very popular. Openly speaking ill of him would be attacked by his fans.
Moreover, Link had no faults to criticize since his debut.
"Okay, thank you both for your wonderful comments. I just received news that Link has arrived backstage."
Steve stood up, turned to look at the backstage entrance, and shouted, "Next, let's give a warm welcome to Mr. Link Baker, the world champion of the 29th Summer Olympic Games boxing middleweight, and the youngest world champion in boxing history!"
Poof!
A puff of white smoke erupted, and Link, wearing a black suit and a blue tie, strode in from the entrance. He was tall and strong, with long and powerful legs, looking handsome and refreshed.
Clap clap clap!
Steve and the hundreds of audience members in the studio stood up and applauded vigorously, shouting Link's name.
"Wow, Link looks so handsome in a suit. I thought I saw a movie star just now."
Steve clapped his hands and said in an exaggerated voice.
"He's really a cool guy. He must have a lot of girlfriends."
Tyson grinned and laughed.
"Hi! Good afternoon, everyone!"
Link waved to the audience and then said to Steve, "Why does the entrance ceremony feel like a 'Men's Show'? My agent told me this was a serious sports talk show."
"Haha, the weather in Los Angeles is too hot, we want to cool you down. How is it? Is it cool? I've tried it a few times before."
Steve shook hands with him and laughed.
"Don't forget that I'm from Miami. The weather in Los Angeles feels like spring to me, very comfortable."
Link smiled and greeted Rafael and Doug Fisher, then looked at the giant of the boxing world, Mike Tyson, feeling a little excited.
Although Tyson had many flaws, in the world of boxing, no one did not admire Tyson, the king of heavy punches. He became the WBC champion at the age of 20, the youngest world champion in history.
At his peak, Tyson defeated almost all the boxing champions at the time and forced many heavyweight boxers to end their careers early.
At that time, there was a saying in the boxing world that the only one who could defeat Tyson was Tyson himself. Before his defeat in Tokyo, he was a god in the boxing world, and his fists were almost the ceiling of human combat power.
Worldwide, he, along with Michael Jordan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, were synonymous with tough guys.
However, Tyson was shorter than expected, about 178 cm tall, with a very strong body, sitting there like King Kong in the movies.
"Hey, Mike, I'm your fan, nice to see you here."
Link extended his hand and shouted.
Tyson laughed and gave him a high-five, saying, "Link, I'm your fan too, remember to sign for me later."
"No problem!"
Link smiled slightly, turned around and waved to the fans who were still applauding, and sat down in the empty seat next to Tyson.
"Ask Link about his views on China."
The program producer said.
Steve nodded slightly while pressing his headset.
(End of Chapter)