Chapter 197: Presenting a Golden Belt?
"Keep On Movin'" was released for the sixth week.
Initially, Link encountered a barrage of attacks from haters and suffered from negative rumors, causing a significant dip in album sales.
However, after the release of "See You Again," album sales unexpectedly surged.
On the sales chart, there appeared a pronounced '√' sign, marking a strong comeback.
In the sixth week, "Keep On Movin'" sold 259,000 copies, holding the Billboard album chart's number one spot for three weeks.
The runner-up was Grizzly Bear's album "Veckatimest," with first-week sales of 136,000 copies.
The third place went to Maxwell's "BLACKsummers'night," with second-week sales of 107,000 copies.
"The Blueprint 3" dropped to the fourth place, selling 74,000 copies.
"Keep On Movin'" had reached cumulative sales of 2.25 million copies in the United States, becoming the sixth album of 2009 to break the two-million mark in sales.
Link also became the fastest artist in the United States music scene to achieve double album Double Platinum status, in just nine months.
Furthermore, in the sixth week of release, the album's overseas sales were also progressively tallied, with a first-month total of 2.757 million copies sold abroad, 910,000 more than the first album.
Asia contributed the most to these numbers, with sales of 1.35 million copies in Huaxia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, New Zealand, among other countries and regions, doubling the sales of the first album.
Also, due to the high sales in Asia, in the fifth week's Olympic Gold Medal giveaway activity, he drew an album code sold to the Huaxia region, and that medal was given to a Huaxia fan.
It is said that when the Olympic Gold Medal was returned to Huaxia, it caused quite a sensation locally.
Many media outlets reported on it, saying that this medal originated from Huaxia, and now by a fortuitous coincidence, was brought back to Huaxia, echoing the historical phrase 'returning the jade intact to Zhao.'
Moreover, this Olympic Gold Medal originally belonged to Phelps, was won by Link, and then returned to Huaxia through a lottery event.
The backstory of this medal is quite interesting, and its market value is no less than 100,000 US Dollars.
It is said that many collectors have shown a keen interest in this Olympic Gold Medal, wanting to purchase it at a high price, but that fan, who is not short of money, expressed the desire to keep it for personal collection, absolutely unwilling to sell.
The news of the Olympic Gold Medal giveaway was hotly covered by major media outlets around the world.
Fans from across the world flooded Link's Twitter with messages, urging him to participate more often in sports meets and championships to win more gold medals.
Some fans even suggested that he should enter more events in the next Olympic Games to win more Olympic Gold, so that everyone would have a chance.
This message garnered over a hundred thousand likes within 24 hours.
In addition, some fans with wilder imaginations suggested that Link was not only a swimmer but a world boxing champion, and that he could even offer a Golden Belt as a lottery prize.
This message also received a lot of support.
Link made a phone call to discuss with Ivanka and Franco, and they both agreed it was possible.
The World Boxing Champion's Golden Belt is a leather gold-plated craft, not made of pure gold.
Within each organization, there are multiple belts for each weight class.
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As long as a boxer earns the champion title, they can receive a belt upon paying 2000 US Dollars.
Even after being defeated by an opponent, a boxer can still keep one as a memento.
In terms of intrinsic value, it might not even compare to a single World Championship Gold Medal.
For the boxer themselves, the symbolic meaning far outweighs the practical significance.
However, for boxing fans, owning an authentic Golden Belt engraved with the name of a boxing champion would be an incredible gift.
Link replied to the fans, stating that it could be done.
He informed all the fans who wished to win the WBA World Boxing Champion Golden Belt that it didn't matter their nationality, age, or gender.
Before December 20, record a boxing training video lasting over 30 seconds, no matter the training style or equipment, as long as it's boxing training.
Taylor will select a lucky fan from the top 300 boxing videos based on viewership, by their video number, on the day before Christmas.
Simultaneously, he also stated that he would compete in two title unification matches within the year, confident that he could get more than four Golden Belt championships.
The remaining belts will also be given away gradually through a random draw based on the video numbers.
After seeing his reply, the fans were extremely enthusiastic.
Everyone was just joking around at first, but he actually agreed and even planned to give away all of the Golden Belts.
Within an hour, the comment section had over 60,000 comments and more than 150,000 shares.
Fans of other singers forwarded his reply to those singers, urging them to learn from Link by participating in sports events and boxing matches, to get some Gold Medals and Golden Belts to pamper their fans.
The other singers all expressed that they really couldn't do it.
Taylor and other familiar singers like Lady Gaga and Katy Perry saw this and warned him in various ways not to go too far, since what he was doing could be seen as unfair competition and could provoke public outrage.
Taylor had the most vehement reaction; every time her fans asked her to learn from her boyfriend, she would clench her fists and punch Link a few times to vent her frustration.
After communications between Dynasty Promotion Company and YouTube's operations department, Link officially announced the new prize drawing activity on Twitter:
Record a boxing training video for a chance to win an official WBA Golden Belt and other belts.
After posting on Twitter, the number of comments in the comment section kept rising.
The biggest change was on the YouTube site, where YouTube staff created a separate category for sports.
All fans who wanted to participate in the drawing could upload their videos to that category.
The first video in this category was a 50-minute boxing training video by Link.
In the video, he detailed his training methods, fitness routines, tips for using equipment, important considerations for boxing training, and the rules of boxing competitions, among other things.
This video had over 2 million views and more than 1.3 million likes on its first day, and many people commented that the video was too long, so they saved it to watch later.
After he uploaded his video, over two hundred boxing training videos were successively uploaded to the category.
Judging from the training venues and equipment shown in the videos, most of these people were amateur boxers, boxing enthusiasts, and even professional boxers.
The boxing category opened by Link provided many boxers with exposure, and some boxers expressed their respect to Link online.
The magazine "The Ring" also praised Link in its latest article, proclaiming that Link's method greatly increased the general public's interest in and attention to boxing, and was a fantastic method for promoting boxing.
The article also mentioned that actively promoting the sport of boxing was something a true champion should do and that giving away Golden Belts was the best way to preserve their honor.
Mr. Fisher Doug, the chief editor of "The Ring" magazine, praised Link as a true champion.
Guest columnist Rafael Varane also expressed his delight in seeing Link's enthusiastic attitude towards promoting boxing matches even after becoming a big star, calling him always the pride of Miami.
Boxing magazines like "The Ring," "KO," and "World Boxing," all under De La Hoya, also reported the news about YouTube's new boxing category, giving it great affirmation and support.
De La Hoya himself uploaded a boxing training video to the category and stated that he would not participate in the draw.
Tyson, Holyfield, Mario, Reggie, Morales, Andrea Berto, and Andzeje and others also uploaded sparring videos to support the event, specifying that they would not participate in the draw either.
Since the videos were quite chaotic, with some coming from professional boxers, some from amateurs, and some from ordinary people, YouTube's tech department suggested separating videos into different categories: professional boxers, amateurs, and enthusiasts.
Link thought this was a good idea, agreed to the proposal, and stated that to be fair, he would only draw from videos submitted by amateurs and enthusiasts.
This proposal was well-received by the majority of fans.