The sun was shining through the French window by the bed, and a gray-haired old woman was trying to lift her arm.
“Great, Mrs. Ayres. Moving your arms is a good start. But you’ve been in bed too long, and your muscle atrophy is so serious that you need more exercises. If you’re tired, you can increase your frequency of exercise and decrease the time of exercise on each occasion. Mr. Ayres is also a coach, so he is a professional on this too,” Dai Li said.
“Thank you, Coach Li.” Ayres looked grateful. He turned to his wife and said, “Honey, you rest, and I’ll show Coach Li out.”
Ayres took Dai Li out of the gate and to a garden in front of the villa.
“Coach Li, I would never believe your massage would be so effective for rehabilitation if I hadn’t seen it myself,” Ayres said with amazement.
“Everyone is good at something, and I am just good at rehabilitation,” Dai Li answered.
“I’m also a coach, and I know it’s almost impossible to help a paralyzed patient recover. Maybe only God himself can do it.” Speaking of this, Ayres went on, “Coach Li, I know that your main business is physical training, but are you interested in being a boxing coach?”
“Boxing coach?” Dai Li shook his head. “I really don’t know much about boxing. If I hadn’t been in contact with Taylor recently, I probably wouldn’t know as much as the senior boxing audience.”
“But you have the talent.” Ayres’ expression became solemn. “I’ve been watching you since the day you found Hopkins’s defect in the video, and I think you are suitable to be a boxing coach. When I first met you, you really didn’t know much about boxing. But during this period, when I was coaching Taylor, you were also learning, right? Besides, you learn very fast, just like a sponge absorbing water. To be honest, you seem to understand boxing better than him.”
“You must be joking. Taylor is a boxing champion with more than ten years of experience,” Dai Li said.
“It has nothing to do with time or experience,” Ayres said seriously, shaking his head. “The accumulation of experience determines the lower limit of a coach’s ability, but talent determines the upper limit. Therefore, talent sometimes is the most important. And you have the talent.”
Dai Li was stunned. He had received similar comments before, but on other events.
“In fact, even if I want to be a boxing coach, I don’t have enough time. After all, I have to run my training center,” Dai Li said.
“You can just be a consultant like I was before I retired. When a boxer comes to you, you only need to give him some instruction or direction for training. As for specific training, the players do it themselves. That was what I did after fifty-five. It’s easy, but it pays well,” Ayres said with a smile,
“As your friend, I think your performance in running a training center is only ordinary, but you are extraordinary in training. So, I have been trying to suggest that you should hire a specialized manager for the operation of your training center. And you should focus on the specific training of athletes. You can regard it as the optimization of talent and position, where the most professional people do what they are best at and get the most effective results.”
Dai Li nodded, because Ayres was not the first person to speak of this. Steven also suggested that Dai Li should hire a specialized manager, and even recommended a suitable person. However, Dai Li was not satisfied with that person because he was too young and had just gotten his MBA without any experience at all. What’s more, he didn’t expect much in the way of salary, which clearly showed that he would quit the job as soon as he got enough experience. Dai Li didn’t want his training center to be just a way of padding out a resume.
“Thank you for your suggestion. I’ll take it seriously,” Dai Li answered.
…
On his way back, Dai Li kept thinking about Ayres’ words.
“Talent? To be a coach? Why didn’t I realize I had such a good coaching talent?” Dai Li said to himself lightly.
“Do you think that’s dependent only on yourself?” the system’s voice reappeared in Dai Li’s mind.
“What do you mean?” Dai Li asked immediately.
“You’ve been at the level of a relatively noted coach for a long time, and you’re about to hit the threshold of famous coach. I thought you already felt it,” the system said. “The promotion of coach level will not only bring you more training effect bonuses, it will also improve your coaching quality. For example, you’ll be equipped with stronger abilities of learning, analyzing, and judging in any sports event.”
“Do you mean it was all because of you that I could see Hopkins’s defect and that Ayres thought that I had the talent to be a boxing coach? It was you that made me so talented, right?” Dai Li asked with a little anger.
“Needless to say. If you really had the world’s best coaching talent, why did you still have to worry about getting a job after graduation? I’m afraid you didn’t stand out in college!” the system answered inexorably.
Dai Li lost himself in thought. Indeed, he was not an outstanding student in college, and his performance in school was just so so. At least in those days, he showed no unusual talent.
The system continued, “The improvement of your coaching quality is related to your coach level. The higher your level is, the more you will improve. Therefore, when you were at the third-rate coach level, you couldn’t realize the improvement of the coaching quality at all, since your coach level was too low. But when you rose to first-rate coach, you should feel the changes brought by the improvements of all qualities!”
Dai Li suddenly recalled that Harman’s coach team had offered him an olive branch when he was in the Dingtian Group. Harman himself once expressed clearly that he hoped that Dai Li would try to be a football coach, which obviously showed that Harman recognized Dai Li’s talent and ability in football training.
No wonder Harman wanted me at that time. I thought I was so skillful. Finally, Dai Li understood everything, and the realization was not pleasant.
After all, it was not real progress of Dai Li himself. The improvement brought by the system was totally different from the progress made by his own efforts. Dai Li had always thought that his progress relied on his own efforts, but now he knew that he was still the same person, the same coach, that he had been in college. He felt inexplicably let down.
Obviously, the system didn’t get Dai Li’s emotion and kept talking. “At the level of well-known coach, even if you don’t know anything about a sport, you can become an expert as long as you are willing to learn. Even a high-level professional athlete will believe your coaching. And if you upgrade to famous coach, the process of learning will be quicker and the effect will be more distinct. You can become an all-round coach, proficient in every sport if you want!”
…
Hopkins was the heavyweight boxing champion of the WBO and IBF. Taylor was the challenger in this match. Therefore, this match would determine whom the two gold belts of the WBO and IBF belonged to.
The WBO and IBF had already invested a lot of resources in this match. Besides, the media publicity had begun the moment the match was announced.
Frequently, professional boxing matches were jointly held by several boxing organizations, especially when a match involved several gold belts. Boxing organizations didn’t mind cooperating with each other to hold the match together, so that they could share their resources to gain high returns with less invested.
As the world’s top boxing organizations, the WBO and IBF both had their own media outreach and means of publicity. Their media resources would cover more than one hundred countries worldwide. With their cooperation, there would be continuous media coverage of the match between Hopkins and Taylor, and soon it would be the so-called Match of the Century.
In fact, professional boxing matches didn’t lack matches of the century. Every boxing organization wanted to package their matches as impressively as possible. Therefore, during the last century, there were dozens called the “Match of the Century.”
The prize money of such a widely-publicized match would be hundreds of million of dollars. According to the usual rules, the winner took 60% of it and the loser took the rest. Therefore, the prize money alone could bring the boxers hundreds of millions.
The appearance fee of the boxing champions was also more than ten million. Hopkins, with his two gold belts, had a much higher appearance fee. Although Taylor was more senior, his fee was lower since he was a challenger.
At the same time, famous boxers could ask for a share of the advertising profits. With all this income together, it was entirely possible to make a hundred million dollars on a single match.
Therefore, no matter who won on the stage, both contestants were winners in terms of economic gain. Anyone would be satisfied with hundreds of millions of dollars, even if he lost the match. Thinking of that pile of bills would more than make up for the frustration of losing.
That was why even the loser of the so-called Match of the Century would drink, eat, and enjoy himself even he lost the match. It was more a celebration without any sign of losing a match. As for the winner, he need to drink more, eat more, and get more girls. He needed to celebrate more.
As for boxing organizations, their huge investments would also earn corresponding returns. The broadcasting rights could be sold to dozens of countries, which could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars. The advertisement income during the match would be dozens of millions, and the ticket income couldn’t be ignored either. All these together would be much of the cost of hosting the match, and sometimes they could profit some.
What was more important was the income brought by the gaming industry. This money would not reach the pockets of the boxing organizations, but the huge annual sponsorship fee that the gaming industry gave to the boxing organization was solid.
…
Taylor was at the MGM Grand Hotel again, but this time he was in the presidential suite.
Taylor had paid off his bank debt and ended his bankruptcy protection, so now his spending was no longer restricted. He could fly first-class, stay in the presidential suite, eat expensive truffle goose liver caviar, buy fancy cars, and hold a big pool party, inviting a lot of hot bikini models.
This match would bring Taylor hundreds of millions. He didn’t need to save money, even if he was a penniless pauper. The most luxurious service in the MGM hotel would cost about ten thousand a day, which was really nothing compared the income he would soon have from the match.
At the pre-match press conference, Dai Li saw Hopkins in person.
Just like Taylor, Hopkins’ talent is also level S+. No wonder people call him the heavyweight boxing champion of the future. He really deserves it. In terms of capacity, the two are nearly at the same level, with Hopkins 965 and Taylor 971.
Dai Li sighed. He had thought of having fun in the betting hall, but now he gave up this intention.
Dai Li didn’t know which one would win, since they both were level S+ with similar capacity.
Both sides had prepared a long time for this match. Their mental and physical states certainly had reached a fantastic level. Now both of them were certainly full of morale. When both sides were in a good state, the impact of so-called on-the-spot performance would be minimized, and would barely affect the result of the match.
In such a high-level match, both boxers already knew each other during the months of preparation before the match.
That was the highlight of such a high-level match. The two top boxing champions had prepared for this match for months, and when they were on the stage, they would be showing their best abilities. Beyond that, they matched each other in ability…
Their strength gap is too narrow. When facing Hopkins, Taylor can’t KO him easily in the first round as he has before. It’s a real battle of wits and courage. Finally, it’s the tactics chosen by both sides that will determine the winner. Thinking of this, Dai Li felt a little nervous. He could help but look at Ayres, who had developed tactics Taylor’s tactics.
Ayres, a legendary coach known as the “White Devil,” was now full of confidence, which could be felt even from a distance.
Ayres seems to have confidence in winning the match! The legendary coach had come back, just like the rising sun.