Chapter 369: Boxing Magazine Annual Meeting
Held at the prestigious Javits Convention Center in New York, the annual event was held on Sunday afternoon local time and lasted until the evening, with more than 500 guests, all of whom were well-known names in the boxing world.
Among them are the award-winning fighters and coaches of the year, the best fighters and coaches, the best coaches, the best new talents, etc., as well as other world-renowned current and former world champions, famous coaches, boxing agents, as well as reporters and other staff members of broadcast companies and sports news outlets.
Wang Hao, William, Paul and Sanchez came to the Javits Convention and Exhibition Center together, and after registering at the welcome desk, they went straight to the site of the annual meeting, which was about three o'clock in the afternoon, and most of the participants had already come.
When Wang Hao and his entourage walked into the Javits Convention and Exhibition Center, they quickly attracted the attention of other people at the scene, mainly because Wang Hao's Asian identity is a bit unusual here.
When Wang Hao walked into the annual meeting, he looked around and found some very familiar faces.
At the scene relatively close to the stage of the annual meeting, sat the current pan-middleweight boxing world, the most market-appealing boxer, the American "Golden Boy" Oscar de la Hoya, next to him sat another top pan-middleweight boxer in the American boxing world, and later one of the four middleweight kings of the "sugar cube" Moseley, and the middleweight overlord who has just begun to show dominance, the current IBF middleweight boxing champion American "Executioner" Hopkins.
When Wang Hao entered, Oscar de la Hoya also cast a concerned eye at Wang Hao, and at this time Mosley and Hopkins were chatting enthusiastically.
"Look! This year's best up-and-coming is here! Oscar de la Hoya said to Moseley and Hopkins, who also hurried to the entrance when they heard Oscar de la Hoya's words.
Among the three Oscar de la Hoya, Moseley and Hopkins, only Oscar de la Hoya won the best new talent in boxing magazines in the year of his debut, and the award of best new talent of the year, although Mosley and Hopkins also dreamed of it when they debuted, but they were still a little unlucky.
Therefore, when they learned that Wang Hao, an Asian boxer, won the best new talent in boxing magazine, Moseley and Hopkins were also very envious.
"I heard that the WBO super lightweight belt you lost after upgrading is already in Wang Hao's hands?" Hopkins also remembered something and asked Moseley.
"Yes! More than a week ago, at the WBO Title match, Wang Hao defeated Camacho and won the WBO Super Lightweight Championship title! He is now the owner of two super lightweight world titles, WBA and WBO! Moseley replied.
"Remarkable! Still so young! After Hopkins glanced in Wang Hao's direction again, he responded, "You and Huo Ya have both been upgraded and no longer play in the super lightweight division, so wouldn't Wang Hao become the ruler of the super lightweight division?" “
"Not necessarily!" Without waiting for Mosley to answer, Oscar de la Hoya replied at this time, "The other two boxing championship belts in the ultra-lightweight division are on Costa Zu, Wang Hao wants to unify the ultra-lightweight division, he must pass the level of Costa Zu, and the match between the two will be very suspenseful!" “
"Personally, I'm more optimistic about Costa Zu!" Moseley said at this time.
Hearing what Oscar de la Hoya and Mosley said, Hopkins also remembered Costa Zu.
Fighters from the former Soviet Union, a completely different style of Soviet-style boxing from the current boxers, a very threatening right and back hand punch, and a pigtail hanging down the back of his head, these are all bright and eye-catching features of Costa Zu.
Before Kosta Zu's debut, the top masters in the boxing world were almost all European and American fighters, although there were many good boxers in the former Soviet Union, but they hardly fought professional boxing.
There are even fewer professional boxers from the countries of the former Soviet Union than those smuggled into the United States from Cuba.
But the emergence of Kosta Zu, the first fighter from the former Soviet Union to gain popularity with the mainstream audience of professional boxing, changed that.
"Costa Zu has just made a Soviet break in the current professional boxing world! Unexpectedly, there was another Chinese boxer who blew the Asian wind! Hopkins also commented, "This is a good thing, and it is very good for the development of professional boxing around the world!" ”
"Hmm!" Hoya nodded, "This is indeed true!" But Wang Hao and Costa Zu still have differences. “
"The outstanding boxers of the former Soviet Union countries are not less than those in Europe and the United States, Costa Zu is only a minority of the professional boxing scene in this group of tigers, and compared with Costa Zu, Wang Hao is definitely an alternative, grew up in Asia, where boxing is underdeveloped, Wang Hao can come out, it is definitely a miracle!"
Hopkins and Mosley nodded, coming from Asia, where boxing is underdeveloped, Wang Hao can also become a top professional boxer, which is indeed admirable.
Wang Hao didn't notice that Oscar de la Hoya and Hopkins were talking about him, and after his eyes swept over Oscar de la Hoya, Hopkins, and Moseley, he looked elsewhere.
At boxing magazine's annual event, Wang Hao also saw Mike Tyson, Holyfield, Rydick Bowe, and Lewis, and even veteran boxing champion Foreman, as well as New Zealand heavyweight David Tua, who is similar to Tyson.
The heavyweight champions were scattered in different parts of the scene, they were tall and conspicuous, with current WBC heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis and his coach Stewart sitting in the second row, while Holyfield, who won his fight with Tyson this year, and his coach Turner in the first row. Wang Hao also saw another very famous pan-middleweight boxer, and one of the later middleweight four kings, Puerto Rican boxer Trinidade, also sitting in a prominent position on the scene with his agent Don Jin.
In addition to these famous fighters and coaches, Wang Hao also saw some famous boxing referees and hosts, such as HBO's famous golden voice host Michael Buffel and SHOWTIME's famous golden voice host Jimmy Lennon were also on the scene, and the famous court referees Kenny Bayless and Richard Steele were also seated in different positions on the scene.
Apparently they were also invited guests to the boxing magazine's annual conference.
These famous boxing champions, coaches, agents, referees and hosts, Wang Hao almost never met in person in the previous life, although he has seen a lot in this life, but it is also the first time for Wang Hao to see so many top celebrities in the boxing world gathered together, so the moment Wang Hao walked into the scene of the annual meeting of boxing magazines, the mood was also very good!
After Wang Hao looked around the scene for a week, he walked to his position together with William and others, under the guidance of the on-site waiter, and a familiar figure greeted him at this time.
"Hey! Dear Mr. Wang Hao! Hello! "The man who came was a tall, thin black man, very polite and very polite.
Wang Hao followed the voice and saw that the other party was the famous American boxing agent, Al Haymon.
Wang Hao, who has the memory of the previous life, knows that Al Haymon is one of the most famous agents in the history of American boxing, and his fame and strength are no less than that of Don King and Arum , but Al Haymon in this era has just started his career, and he has not yet had a deep foundation in the promotion company of Don King and Arum, but after entering the 21st century, especially in the second decade of the 21st century, Al Haymon's fighters Mayweather and Pacquiao have achieved great success, and Al Haymon has also been named the best boxing agent by the American Boxing Association many times, the strength and fame have surpassed that of Don Kim and Arum at that time.
Wang Hao met Al Haymon in this life because at the Atlanta Olympics, after Wang Hao defeated Hernandez to win the gold medal, he was strongly recruited by Al Haymon, Al Haymon liked Wang Hao very much, and personally recruited Wang Hao enthusiastically.
At that time, Tang Jin and Arum's brokerage companies also took a fancy to Wang Hao, but they were all young agents under the faction to contact Wang Hao, and obviously attached far less importance to Wang Hao than Al Haymon.
This made Wang Hao also have a good impression of Al Haymon, but Wang Hao had already decided to start a boxing career in Germany at that time and chose the Rhine Boxing Club, if Wang Hao decided to start a professional boxing career in the United States at that time, he would probably choose El Haymon.
Although Wang Hao is not currently a fighter under Al Haymon, Al Haymon has always been obsessed with Wang Hao, especially after Wang Hao defeated Chavize and Camacho in a row, Al Haymon knew that Wang Hao was by no means a thing in the pool, and would be another Hoya-level existence.
And Al Haymon knows that with Wang Hao's strength, it won't take long for him to land in the United States, and when the time comes, Al Haymon will have a chance.
Therefore, when he saw Wang Hao at the annual meeting of boxing magazines, Al Hymon also immediately got up from his seat, took the initiative to walk to Wang Hao, and greeted Wang Hao warmly.
"I learned you won the best talent of the year! Well deserved, congratulations! Congratulations! Al Haymon stretched out his hand, shook it tightly with Wang Hao, and praised Wang Hao.
Raise your hand and don't hit the smiling person, besides, Wang Hao's impression of Al Haimon is very good, Wang Hao shook hands with Al Haimeng very happily and chatted.
However, at this time, William, who is also an agent, is a little unhappy, he doesn't know if Al Haymon, as an agent, takes the initiative to get so close to Wang Hao, but as a boxing agent, William doesn't like other agents to get too close to his fighters.
Although William only signed a five-year contract with Wang Hao, in William's mind, he hoped that Wang Hao would stay at the Rhine Boxing Club, after all, a good fighter like Wang Hao is rare for ten years.
Moreover, the strength of boxing agents in the United States is very strong, even though the Rhine Boxing Club is already the best boxing club and brokerage company in Europe, but the first-class brokerage company in the United States is still significantly stronger than the Rhine Boxing Club.
The contact between Al Hymon and Wang Hao made William unhappy at the same time, but also had a sense of crisis, watching Al Haymon and Wang Hao talking, William thought that he should raise Wang Hao's treatment a little higher.
After chatting with Al Haymon for a while, Wang Hao, William and others sat in their seats, and at this time, the annual meeting of boxing magazines began immediately.
The boss of the boxing magazine first delivered a speech on behalf of the boxing magazine, and then the editor-in-chief of the boxing magazine spent 20 minutes to state and summarize the major events and major matches that have taken place in the boxing world in the past year to all the guests on the scene.
Among them, it naturally mentioned that Wang Hao entered the professional boxing world and won two ultra-lightweight two boxing championship belts.
The editor-in-chief of Boxing Magazine said: "This year there are both matchups between veteran kings, like the Tyson vs. Holyfield fight I just mentioned, as well as kings' revenge stories, such as Lewis beating McCall, and the birth of a young king. “
Among them, the most typical one is naturally Mr. Wang Hao, who is ultra-lightweight! Mr. Wang Hao was a double champion of the World Championships and the Olympic Games in the amateur boxing era, and after entering the professional boxing world, it took only one year to defeat the older generation of ultra-lightweight kings Chavez and Camacho! has become the brightest rising star in professional boxing this year! The editor-in-chief of Boxing Magazine continued.
When the editor-in-chief of the boxing magazine narrated, the scene also resounded with warm applause, and Tyson, Holyfield, Lewis, Hopkins and other boxing celebrities all applauded one after another to congratulate Wang Hao on his achievements.
"What is especially difficult to make is that Mr. Wang Hao comes from China in Asia, although this ancient country has made brilliant achievements in table tennis and badminton, but so far there has not been much achievement in boxing, Mr. Wang Hao has created history, not only China and even the whole of Asia boxing has led a big step forward!" The editor-in-chief of boxing magazine gave Wang Hao a very high evaluation and was very pertinent.
The scene once again burst into warm applause.
"I think it's even more difficult than a table tennis player from the United States who won the Olympic gold medal!" The editor-in-chief of the boxing magazine made another analogy with the table tennis sport that China is good at, which also caused a burst of good-natured laughter at the scene.
After the editor-in-chief of Boxing Magazine introduced the major events and major competitions in this year's professional boxing world, the scene entered the award ceremony, which will present a number of awards such as the best boxing match of the year, the best boxer of the year, the best new talent of the year, and the best coach of the year.
At this time, HBO's famous golden voice host Michael Buffel took to the stage, who will serve as the presenter.