King Of Sports - 195 Baku

During more than half a month in Beijing, Tang Yan underwent special training under the guidance of Qin Hailong to increase his punch resistance.

Entering the 63kg class the force behind the punches he would receive had increased so especially in the face of top level foreign boxers, it was important to adapt.

Tang Yan saw the training as an extra investment. Although he had the discharge system to help disperse the force from a punch, it was only auxiliary.

Boxers needed to be able to handle their opponents offense inorder to carry out defensive counter attacks. The basis of all of this was a strong enough body to resist attacks.

After more than half a month of hard work, Tang Yan found a balance between the discharge system and punch resistance, so he was able to launch a good defensive counterattack.

And at the end of training, under the leadership of the national team coach Qin Hailong, Tang Yan and Zou Shiming, Zhang Xiaoping, Zhang Zhilei and the other boxers who qualified for the World Championships, boarded a plane to Azerbaijan together.

Azerbaijan was located at the junction between Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It was bordered by Russia to the north, Iran to the south, and Georgia to the west.

Baku, the host of the World Boxing Championships this time, was known as the “Petroleum City”.

Because of the time difference with China, after the team arrived in Baku, Qin Hailong didn’t arrange training for the team, but took the team to travel to some of the well-known local attractions. The first stop they went to was Baku’s famous Old City.

Old City towered above the harbour, it was the highest part of the city, in which laid the Palace of the Shirvanshahs. Built on a prominent cliff, with royal luxury and unusual grandeur, everything was made of glitter flattened stone. All the buildings were delicately connected to each other and no seams could be discerned from anywhere.

It was the first time that Tang Yan saw such a palace, it looked impenetrable and stable, he couldn’t help but be impressed by the capabilities of ancient architects.

Zhang Xiaoping and Zhang Zhilei were also coming to Baku for the first time. They took out cameras to shoot the pictures non-stop and everyone seemed to be in quite a good mood.

Tang Yan also took two photos for Weibo, which soon attracted fans’ likes and retweets.

Because his heroic river escapades were exposed, his number Weibo following was increasing every minute. Coupled with his increased interaction, fan activity was quite high. When he flicked through,  there were already several hundred comments.

“That is Baku City. I’ve been there once. It’s quite magnificent. But it’s on a cliff. Tang Yan don’t trip and die.”

“User upstairs, what the f*ck are you wishing him death or warning him, jeez!”

“What a beautiful stone palace, Tang Yan on another journey to conquer the boxing ring!”

…

Tang Yan was looking through the comments. When, someone patted him on the shoulder. He turned around to see Zhang Zhilei and a hint of confusion flashed in his eyes.

Following Zhang Zhilei’s gaze, he looked around and saw that there was a group of guys walking around the palace, wearing similar team uniforms to theirs and at this time they were heading towards them.

Appearing here in such a way at this time, he didn’t need to think much to realise they must be one of the teams participating in the championships.

After arriving in Baku, they chose to relax. So it wasn’t surprising that the other boxing teams had similar ideas.

However, the doubts in Tang Yan’s eyes continued.

He was about to turn back and ask Zhang Zhilei, but at this moment, the boxers from the other team seemed to have noticed them and when he was about to turn around, there was a boxer about 5’6 who waved his fist, throwing fake punches in the air whilst smiling disdainfully.

Seeing this, Tang Yan became even more confused.

Obviously, this was an attempt at provocation, a childish one but one still.

Just then, the boxers passed them by.

Without waiting for Tang Yan to ask, Zhang Zhilei followed up and said, “The one who just threw those air punches is Luke Jackson. He’ll be one of your opponents. He’s probably holding a grudge because of the swimming team. ”

“Swimming team?”

Zhang Zhilei nodded and said: “The Australian swimming team is just like our table tennis and diving team, they are the dream team. If they went abroad, got defeated and abused, wouldn’t you be out for blood?”

“Ohh.” Tang Yan said, suddenly understood everything.

Any sports team known as the Dream Team in a country would receive unprecedented attention. They would be representing the country after all.

“Plus I heard Jackson learned to swim back when he was a kid and nearly when pro but later gave up due to his height disadvantage. He’s probably friends with the swimming team so if you meet him, he definitely won’t be soft handed.” Zhang Zhilei followed up.

Tang Yan smiled slightly but didn’t speak.

So Luke Jackson was looking for a chance to get revenge for his friends, that was understandable even commendable.

But his aim for this World Championship was to get an Olympic ticket, so no matter who tried to block him, it was all the same.

After the tour, the boxing team headed back to the hotel to rest.

Because of the opening ceremony the next day, they needed to be refreshed.

…

The next day, after weighing in and medical examinations. The all important match-up lottery followed.

Because the competition adopted a single defeat elimination system, the lottery determined your opponent in the first round, and even the follow-up matches.

There were a total of 32 boxers participating in the light welterweight class.

Balls containing the names of the boxers were placed in a box and randomly drawn out. They would then be matched up according to the order in which their names were taken out.

With the 1st pick fighting the 32nd pick, 2nd pick fighting the 31st pick and so on.

Tang Yan was the No. 12 pick.

However, after the announcement of the match ups, he couldn’t help showing a bitter smile.

According to the rules, No. 12 was against No. 21, and No. 21 was exactly the Australian boxer Luke Jackson.

Once again he couldn’t help but question the f*cking odds!