Chapter 396: Fitness Issue

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Taylor stood on one of the gym’s scales, both eyes glued to the number that it displayed.

In such a short amount of time, I’ve become this much lighter? I’m not sick, am I? I just had a medical examination two months ago, and the report indicated that I was in perfect health. Maybe this scale is broken. Taylor stared suspiciously at the scale.

“What’s wrong? Are you wondering if the scale is broken?” Dai Li’s voice emerged from his side. Taylor turned his head to look at Dai Li with an expression that said, How did you know what I was thinking?

Taylor’s expression made Dai Li feel strange. There was a Chinese saying that said that one had to stand on their own by the time they reached the age of 30. Taylor was already a 32-year-old, but his mind was nothing like that of a grown man. One could even say that he had no subtlety. Whatever was on his mind would appear immediately on his face.

No wonder he got conned out of 500 million dollars by his agent. He’s like a grown-up kid.

As Dai Li’s thoughts wandered, he said, “Don’t worry, this scale works fine. You’ve really lost that much weight.”

“I’ve never lost so much weight in such a short amount of time,” Taylor said.

“Don’t you think that it’s amazing?” Dai Li laughed and continued, “That’s why you should have faith in me. Although I am not a professional boxing coach, I won’t lose to any boxing coach in aspects of training, apart from punching techniques. As for punching techniques, I think that you are already the world’s best, right?”

After all, Taylor had been a professional boxer for 13 years, and he used to stand at the peak of the boxing world, having obtained several heavyweight championship belts. When it came to punching techniques, he wouldn’t lose to any boxing coach. Besides, Taylor’s fighting style leaned more towards a “one trick pony” anyway, so as long as he perfected his “Three ax tricks of Chen Yaojin,” the other techniques weren’t that important. He might not even be able to use them in a match.

“I have faith in you, but I have no faith in myself,” Taylor said in a low voice.

“You managed to lose more than ten pounds of body weight in such a short amount of time, we’re already very close to the initial target of 20 pounds. This is a good start. You should have more confidence in yourself,” Dai Li said encouragingly.

Taylor nodded, but his eyes still did not show that he had an ounce of confidence. He hesitated for a few seconds and finally said, “As a matter of fact, I can feel that a lot of my body functions have deteriorated since I was young. My muscles aren’t as vigorous. Although I have been recovering, my recovery speed has been extremely slow.”

Taylor made a few punches in the air as he spoke, he then shook his head. “I’ve become weak, much weaker than before. I don’t have the kind of explosive power I had when I was young. My combination punches have lost their power, and more importantly, my fitness isn’t anywhere near what it used to be.”

“Leave your fitness training to me. Don’t forget, I am a fitness coach; fitness training is my specialty,” Dai Li said with confidence.

“That’s not what I mean. What I mean to say is that there is an upper limit to my fitness, and if the upper limit has been lowered, it’s not something training can solve.”

Taylor lowered his voice and continued, “In truth, even when I was in my early twenties, during my golden years, I could never fight the entire 12 rounds. Even then, if a match were dragged to the tenth round, I would lose all my offensive capabilities. The match I lost back then was dragged past the tenth round. Don’t you find it funny? A heavyweight boxing champion who held multiple championship belts didn’t even have the fitness to complete 12 rounds of a match?”

“It is a little unexpected.” Dai Li nodded.

It certainly sounded funny if someone were to say a professional boxer’s fitness couldn’t take him through an entire match. Not to mention Taylor, who was a world-class boxing champion.

However, in the boxing world, Taylor was really different. He would always KO his opponents within the first three rounds. For him, fighting until the 12th round would require far too much.

Taylor, who was seated on the opposite, said, “I know. The peak period for a boxer is between 25 and 30 years old. However, during that period, I was in jail. After I got out of jail, I was 30. I had already watered down a great deal, no longer at my peak.”

“I remember that after you got out of jail, you only took half a year to regain the WBA championship belt,” Dai Li said.

“Yeah, but in truth, back then, my fitness level dropped so much that I couldn’t even last ten rounds. I could only fight until the seventh or eighth round then. In the match where I won the WBA championship belt, my opponent was also defeated within the first three rounds.” Taylor let out a long sigh and said with shame, “You should know, in the match where I bit off Highfield’s ear?”

Dai Li nodded. He knew that to Taylor, there was only one word to describe the match, “Shameful.” That ear-biting match gained the attention of the world. Not only had Taylor received a two-year ban for that, he had lost his dignity and pride as the boxing champion and become an object of ridicule.

Dai Li did not know whether the subject would upset or motivate Taylor, so he had never brought it up, but now Taylor had voluntarily brought up the match where he was reduced to a laughingstock.

Taylor continued speaking, “I thought I was going to win. I felt that as long as I continued to attack, Highfield would get knocked down quickly. And back then, most people thought that the chances of me winning were higher; that could be seen easily from the odds given by lottery companies.”

“However, the reality was nothing like my imagination. Highfield was very sly. He knew that with my fitness, I wouldn’t be able to hold out too long, so he just kept dodging and running. He never confronted me directly, and when there was finally nowhere to run anymore, he would clinch. Then, the referee would separate us.”

“Even more aggravating was that he kept using these dirty tricks. He was taller than me, so he would continuously headbutt my face. Sure, it’s a common trick in boxing matches, but before that, my opponents were all knocked down before they had the opportunity to use that sort of trick.”

“Now that I think about it, he was actually intentionally trying to anger me. He baited me so that I would attack. He wanted to quickly exhaust my stamina, and I fell right into his trap. I grew impatient and anxious as I fought, and as time went by, my stamina expenditure grew faster. I knew that if things were to continue as they were, my stamina would be depleted and I would lose the match!”

“I was eager to attack, but when he began clinching to prevent my attacks, it made me extremely impatient. In one of the attacks, as he clinched me, he headbutted my brow at the same time, it was really painful, excruciating! That kind of pain was completely different from getting punched in the face with a boxing glove. At that moment, I lost my mind, and I directly bit his ear.”

Dai Li nodded his head as if he realized something. “So that’s what really happened. Looks like this Highfield was a sly old fox!”

“He was always known as the old fox in the boxing world. He was very adept at using all kinds of tricks, and he was also very good at using his dirty tricks when the referees wouldn’t be able to see. Those are the things that I was terrible at.” Taylor smiled bitterly.

Dai Li could feel Taylor’s sense of resignation. For a simple-minded and impulsive athlete like Taylor, when facing old foxes like Highfield, getting played and messed around like that was commonplace.

Taylor continued, “I was 30 years old then, and I could only last seven or eight rounds. Now I am 32 years old, my body has deteriorated more, I don’t know if I can even last more than five rounds! What’s more, my punches aren’t as powerful as they used to be, so I am not confident that I can defeat my opponents in three rounds.”

“Is your physical fitness the main reason you have no faith in yourself?” Dai Li asked.

Taylor nodded. He then fell into silence.

Dai Li finally understood. Taylor lost his self-confidence because he understood the condition his body was in. He seemed to be a simple-minded person on the surface, but in reality, his judgment of himself was extremely accurate. He did not have an exaggerated opinion of his ability, in fact, he was completely aware of his limits when it came to boxing.

Dai Li suddenly remembered a phrase: “When God closes a door, he always leaves a window open.” Taylor was a complete idiot regarding personal finances. Tricked by his agent, losing over 500 million dollars’ worth of assets in just a few years. However, when it came to boxing, he was truly a genius!

“If you were 26 or 27 years old, you should be able to fight the full 12 rounds, right?” Dai Li asked. “You should have been at your peak then.”

“I don’t know.” Taylor shook his head. “I was in prison then.”

“Did you not continue to train boxing while you were in prison?” Dai Li asked.

“It’s a bit embarrassing to talk about, but when I was in prison, I was beaten by others.” Taylor smiled bitterly again and continued, “I was imprisoned in a jail in Indianapolis. On the day I arrived at the prison, everyone was cheering. They weren’t welcoming me. They had found a new opponent, and they couldn’t wait to kick my ass to increase their reputation.”

“There’s even something like that?” Dai Li asked curiously.

“Yeah. I could feel hostility coming from every corner of the prison. I knew that everyone around me wanted to take me down,” Taylor answered.

“You say that you were beaten by someone. It can’t be that you couldn’t beat them in a fight?” Dai Li asked cautiously.

“At first I thought that I could knock them down in one punch too, but who’d have thought that prison had so many hidden talents? One of them was an infamous fighter from the underworld; he once killed his opponent with one kick in an underground fighting ring. There was also a karate champion of the west coast; apart from that, people who were keen for a fight were everywhere. These convicts had nothing better to do all day than use the prison gym. It was set up especially for these muscle head criminals to vent out their extra energy!” Taylor exclaimed.

“On this, my country is much better. The criminals of my country are very busy while serving their time in prison. They have to take part in labor reform, study political science, and increase their ideological awareness. Of course, they have time to exercise too, but there is definitely no lack of outlets for them to vent out their energy,” Dai Li said with a grin.

“Yeah, it’s not a good thing when criminals have too much energy. I was used to dominating the boxing ring, so I didn’t take the criminals seriously. I originally thought they were only punks from the streets, and I suffered for it. I personally witnessed a big guy having a spat with a prison boss. When the boss hit him, the big guy was unconscious before he hit the ground. By the time the prison officers arrived, he had already stopped breathing,” Taylor said.

“Since he killed someone in prison, it didn’t end well for the prison boss, right?” Dai Li asked.

“The state of Indiana has already abolished the death penalty. The cumulative prison sentence of that prison boss was already 85 years, so he won’t be getting out in this lifetime anyway. Killing one more person didn’t really matter to him. At most, he would get locked up in a supermax. And in that prison, conflicts that result in injuries happen almost every day.”

Taylor’s tone sounded weak, and he continued, “I’m not a ruffian, and I still wanted to get out and enjoy life, so I treated every provocation carefully. I didn’t dare practice boxing, because I was worried that would be seen as showing off. I didn’t even dare to go to the gym. Every time I walked past the gym, I would see convicts hitting the sandbag crazily to show off. I didn’t even dare to train in squats.”

“Which is to say, in those five years, you have had absolutely no practice?” Dai Li never would have imagined that things would be like this; he had initially thought that someone like Taylor, upon entering prison, would become the virtual king of the prison, someone that no one dared to offend. He never would have thought that Taylor was a coward that hid and avoided everyone he saw in prison.

Later, Dai Li noticed another issue. He said, “You haven’t trained in five years, but after being released, you only took half a year to regain the WBA championship belt. When it comes to boxing, you are really a genius!”

“I guess you can’t say that I absolutely didn’t practice. I actually started training again in the last two years of my sentence.” Taylor pointed to a scar on his head and continued, “You remember the underground fighting champion that killed someone with a kick? He left me this. He broke my nose bridge and another three of my ribs. I was sent to the hospital for one month.”

“There really is someone who can defeat you?” Dai Li was somewhat surprised.

“He’s a master who has experienced life and death fights, and I’ve never seen anyone so strong.” Taylor didn’t seem to want to talk about the underground fighting champion who injured him. “After I returned from the hospital, my agent gave that underground champion some money, and reached an understanding with him. I guess you can say that we paid him protection money to take care of me. Later, my agent used more money to hire a bunch of convicts to become my bodyguards. At the same time, he also rented a single room cell for me in prison. During those time, I even got myself a female prison officer! She wasn’t pretty, she was also a little old and not in good shape, there was even a lot of fat… But you know, in prison, any woman is desired!”

Taylor’s eyebrows danced in joy at the mention of women, and it was obvious that he was showing off.

Dai Li, on the other hand, looked dumbfounded. “That’s a little off-topic, don’t you think? What I want to know is, how strong were you when you were 26 or 27 years old?”

“Is this important?” Taylor asked.

“It’s very important!” Dai Li continued, “Tell me this; if you hadn’t gone to prison, and continued to practice boxing, when do you think your body would have been in peak condition?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep