After the New Year, Richard and Mrs. Bündchen attended several parties and visited many acquaintances in New York.
They visited some elders in the Bronx, producers Moritz and Kopelson, director Davis, director David Twohy's home, Mrs. Wendy Deng's home, Norman Holiday's home, Ali Adler's home, Anthony's home, Newburgh Orphanage, and more, spending the New Year in a busy flurry of activity.
Once all the social events were over, he shifted his time and energy back to training. No matter how much money he earned or what level of actor he became, boxing remained his foundation.
Thud, thud, thud...
The radiators around the boxing gym emitted heat, keeping the indoor temperature above 20°C.
On the boxing ring, Richard, with his hands wrapped in bandages, wearing a tank top and shorts, moved his feet agilely, continuously striking the protective pad. His jabs were precise and quick, one punch following another in a relentless assault.
Paul, holding the pad, constantly adjusted his defensive stance, feeling the force of Richard's punches reverberate through the pad. He kept frowning,
"Richard, your strength is getting stronger and stronger. Even holding the pad, I'm finding it hard to stay on my feet."
Thud, thud...
Richard threw a few more punches and exhaled, "This is the result of consistent training. The more you persist, the more you gain. God is fair."
"Bullshit! You've spent most of the past two years acting and fooling around, while I've been training non-stop. Even if I slacked off occasionally, I've trained a lot more than you. So why haven't I improved as much as you?"
Paul grumbled, clearly frustrated.
"Maybe it's talent," Richard chuckled.
"Damn talent again! You're a white guy, and there's never been a boxing champion in your family. Where does all this boxing talent come from?"
Paul's eyes reddened with anger. This guy was truly infuriating. Being around someone like Richard constantly highlighted the difference between them, delivering relentless blows to his self-esteem. He couldn't fathom how he'd managed to endure these past few years—it hadn't been easy.
Thud!
Richard landed a solid punch on the pad, making Paul stagger, "Focus. Don't get distracted during training. Like you said, you train more than I do, but can you keep your focus solely on boxing? If not, the effectiveness of your training is cut in half."
"I... I can, of course."
Paul snorted lightly, raising the pad and concentrating on defending against Richard's punches.
Thud, thud, thud...
Richard continued his moving target training.
After half an hour of practice, they switched roles, with Paul attacking and Richard holding the pad to defend.
This was something they could have delegated to someone else, but since both were skilled fighters with strong boxing techniques, training together as sparring partners yielded better results.
Once the attack-defense training was over, they moved on to reaction speed training.
This was a weak spot for Paul, but it was a strong point for Richard. To help Paul earn his championship belt sooner, Richard and Alvin had thought long and hard, eventually coming up with a method—blindfolded training to enhance sensory perception.
Richard had trained like this during his earlier combat practice. Though difficult, it had proven to be very effective.
Paul had undergone over a month of intense training, taking many hits, and had shown significant improvement in his reaction speed.
---On January 9th, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Paul participated in the fourth match of the first round of the WBC Championship Challenge. His opponent was Terry Grumman, who currently has a record of 18 wins and 1 loss, similar to Paul's stats.
The two fought for eight rounds, and Paul secured his fourth victory. His current record is 24 wins and 2 losses, with a WBC ranking of 56. His rankings in other organizations have also slightly improved.
After Paul's match, Richard also faced his 19th professional fight against IBF light heavyweight champion Anthony Tarver.
Last year, after Anthony Tarver won the IBF title, his management company sent out a challenge invitation to fight Richard, showing great confidence in the match.
After defeating Roy Jones for the second time, Anthony Tarver became even more confident, publicly stating in the media, "Richard is a tactical master, I admit that, but his tactics won't work on me. I can beat him."
Richard decided to accept the challenge.
Originally, his plan was to wait until Anthony gained more fame to earn more prize money, but since Anthony was eager to fight, there was no need to wait any longer.
After several rounds of negotiations, the match date was set for January 15th at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, for the WBA-WBC-IBF title unification bout.
Before the match, the management companies of both fighters jointly promoted the fight for more than three months, hyping it up as another top-tier showdown in the light heavyweight division.
The promotion was effective, but still fell short compared to the match last March.
"Richard, look at this. Tyson publicly supported Anthony, saying Anthony is the number one light heavyweight and that you are more suited to be an actor," Paul said, holding a newspaper.
"He's just jealous of my fair skin and deliberately opposing me," Richard replied with a smile.
"Yes, if only you were black. What a pity~" Paul said with a regretful expression.
Richard smirked. If he were any darker, his good looks would certainly suffer, which would be unacceptable.
"Richard, how do you plan to fight this match?" Alvin asked.
"Steadily and carefully. This fight has a large audience, so I can go for a few more rounds," Richard thought for a moment and replied.
"Be careful in this fight. I reviewed your fight data, and since turning professional, you've participated in 18 matches, but you only got injured in the fight against Anthony. According to recent footage of Anthony's matches, he seems stronger now. Don't injure your jaw again this time," Alvin warned.
"I understand!" Richard said, touching his jaw. It was something to take seriously. Despite fighting for so long, that injury was the worst, and Anthony's hook punches should not be underestimated.
"Caesar's Palace has arrived," Mike called out from the front passenger seat.
"Let's go!"
The group stepped out of the stretch Lincoln, immediately surrounded by reporters asking all sorts of questions.
Richard answered a few questions and, escorted by staff, entered Caesar's Palace casino.
"Mike, what's my betting odds for this match?"
"Your odds of winning are 1:1.1, while Anthony's odds are 1:2.5. Obviously, the bookmakers favor you."
"Well, there's no chance of making money," Richard shook his head. In previous matches, he could make a lot of money by betting, but not anymore.
Entering the venue, there were more than 20,000 spectators. On the stage opposite the boxing ring, a warm-up performance was underway, featuring famous Black artists like Whitney Houston, Destiny's Child, and The Black Eyed Peas.
During Destiny's Child's final performance of "Killing Time," Richard, dressed in a black suit, walked onto the stage, sang a couple of lines with the four girls, and even did a brief street dance, drawing cheers from the crowd.
Richard smiled lightly. He had come three days earlier to rehearse for this performance, and it went quite well.
The performance ended, and the match began.
(End of chapter)