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The Winter Olympics are in full swing, and failures in the arena are often unacceptable, as are Zhu Yi and Liu Xiang. In fact, it is often more difficult to accept the athletes themselves. Boxer Xu Can, once China's only active world boxing champion gold belt owner, fell from the top with a defeat in August 2021. This once fiercely victorious king fell into doubt, internal friction, and struggled to recover from failure.
Get lost in the jungle
Xu Can saw himself fall.
"Boom", the voice is crisp and short - in the replay, his jaw is hit by a right-handed punch from The British boxer Leigh Wood, and his body loses its center of gravity, shakes, and finally falls into the ring.
Two and a half months after losing the world boxing champion's golden belt, last year's National Day holiday ended, accompanied by the Chinese target master Makry, Xu Can dared to watch the video replay of the boxing match. Strictly speaking, that was the first time he looked back at the boxing match and the picture of himself being knocked down.
Figure | Xu Can (left) against Briton Leigh Wood
Every time you walk up to the boxing ring and punch, you walk into a jungle. Xu Can said that the fist ring was soft and soft, like sand in the jungle. And this soft touch like sand will give the boxer a sense of "insecurity".
What's in the jungle? The branches of the trees are luxuriant, and the sunlight pours down through the gaps in the branches and leaves, penetrating the mist in the forest. There are no roads in the woods, but you can hear the stream flowing by. The beast is fierce and may pounce at any time. "I have to find my own way out." Xu Can continued to tell the story of the jungle world above the boxing ring as he understood it.
Suddenly, a leopard swooped up and threw him down. The wound was bleeding, and he had to run forward quickly, not stay where he was. This leopard is Leigh Wood.
Knocked down by a punch, the soft sponge cushion supported Xu Can's tired body, and the swollen eyes were closed, leaving only the mouth wide open and panting. Under the ring was a noisy crowd, they clapped their hands, stomped their feet, and roared because of everything that happened in the boxing ring, and in just a few seconds after falling on the stage, Xu Can just wanted to rest for a while. It was the first time in his life that he had been knocked down by an opponent. Referee Macdonald got down on one knee and started for a few seconds, "One, Two, Three..."
At that time, the boxing match had reached the 12th round, and both men's physical strength was almost gone, and Xu Can's points were behind his opponent Leigh Wood. "That swinging punch is not heavy." In the whole game, I was hit by more than ten hook punches, and the cumulative damage was very large," combined with the game video, he analyzed, "At that time, I fell, I didn't feel anything after getting up, I was quite calm." ”
During the game before the fall, he and Lee Wood were both injured, and blood flowed from the corners of his eyes, mouth, and nostrils, with a fishy smell, splashing the boxing ring. Within the square inch rope circle, everything relied on the fist to speak, Xu Can knew when he was very young, "The one who stands is the king of the boxers, not the one who falls." ”
In the video replay, Xu Can stood up, the referee withdrew to the periphery, and Lee Wood waited for the opportunity to continuously combine punches to attack. He held up the defensive, stepped backwards, and failed to seize the opportunity to punch back. In this case, unfortunately, in order to protect the boxers, the referee announced the termination of the game.
On August 1, 2021, in Brentwood, England, in the third world boxing championship gold belt defense battle of his career, Xu Can tasted the defeat. He lost his golden belt, and China did not have an active world boxer.
The above is the reason for the decadence of boxing king Xu Can. The day after the boxing match, he flew back from England to quarantine via Xi'an and Shanghai, and finally returned to Beijing on August 24.
After returning home with defeat, Xu Can tried to get out of the jungle. But it was too difficult, he stumbled, and the most difficult step was that he did not dare to look back at the failure: "Failure is the last thing I want to face and the last thing I want to face." I was resistant and didn't want to admit it. ”
Figure | After the defeat, Xu Can's world was once gray
"For two months, the jungle ran out of sunlight and fell into darkness." Xu Can said that the beast had been chasing after him, trying to pounce on him and bite him. He didn't have the heart to think about how to define or understand the boxing match. Fear, self-blame, disappointment and doubt about himself haunt Xu Can, who bears it alone and refuses to share the pain with others.
He was resting, but he felt much more tired than he had been during training. Inside and outside the body, multiple stresses and emotions fight each other. During that time, his temperament also became different from before. Xu Can admitted that he had a very angry self, often angry, and opposed to everything around him. He will lose his temper with friends and family for no reason, followed by regrets, apologies, multiplying stress, and falling into self-depletion. "Confidence has been lost," said Xu Can, who didn't know how to get into the ring.
"That's the last thing I want to see myself. I lived to be the person I hated the most. I've gone bad, I was originally modest..." Xu Can said. The undertone of modesty is self-confidence. Mentally and physically, it was in a state of total slump, slowly digesting the defeat.
Face failure
Xu Can's boxing agent Liu Gang knew that the only person who could really take Xu Can out of the jungle was Xu Can himself.
As soon as the competition ended, Liu Gang, who was in China, sent a message to Xu Can: "It's okay, study hard, pay attention to safety on the way back home." In the spring of 2010, Xu Can, a boy from Zixi, Jiangxi Province, was taken by his parents from his hometown to Kunming to join the Zhongwei Boxing Gym founded by Liu Gang. Twelve years have passed, and the two people have become like father and son.
"I know he has mixed feelings and feel ashamed of his supporters, boxing fans and team, and advise him not to think too much, to rest well, to relax." Liu Gang said that after the child grew up, he discussed everything with him.
Figure | Liu Gang (center) brings out Xiong Chaozhong (left) and Xu Can
Liu Gang is a well-known promoter of professional boxing in China, he represented the Chinese boxing team in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, when he was handsome and had the title of "beautiful boy" in the boxing ring. At that time, Liu Gang got acquainted with a coach of the Australian national team, and on the recommendation of the other party, he bought a one-way ticket and carried 300 US dollars to break into Australia.
300 US dollars is only enough to live for a month, Liu Gang found a Chinese restaurant as a dishwasher, running every morning to practice physical fitness, change clothes and then go to brush dishes, take the train to the boxing gym after work, and then rush back to the restaurant after training. The gap is too big, Liu Gang sighed: "In China, I am the national team, 'panda' level treatment, food, clothing, housing and transportation are arranged; in foreign countries, I am nothing, everything starts from scratch." ”
Boxing is an aesthetic of violence and a philosophy of life. Liu Gang experienced the joy of struggle from it, "Adversity and failure can urge people to grow." Liu Gang's personal experience and boxing philosophy have impressed many boxers who have followed him to practice boxing in Zhongwei, Yunnan, and many of the people he has cultivated have the shadow of his youth, and Xu Can is no exception.
However, adversity and failure had never shown such a serious injury to Xu Can. Because Xu Can's career began with a beautiful victory.
In mid-November 2013, in Yuhang, Zhejiang Province, Xu Can took the stage to play the first official boxing match. At that time, he was playing a cushion match for Qiu Xiaojun, the brother of zhongwei boxing gym.
In the 4-round rookie battle, Xu Can simply and neatly defeated Tang Yuanyuan, a boxer who had played amateur boxing. Sina Sports reporter Zhou Chao, who watched the boxing match on the spot, described Xu Can as "arms like a shield wall phalanx erected by ancient Macedonians, silently moving forward, crushing the opponent's strike space." Later, the defensive system of the hugging arm became Xu Can's signature playing style.
Zhou Chao asked Xu Can how he had practiced this style of play, and Xu Can did not say why at that time. Xu Can loves to ponder, and there is only one thing to ponder -- boxing. According to Zhou Chao's analysis of experience, It was Xu Can who watched many boxing match videos and then combined with his own conditions and slowly figured it out.
Figure | Well-known coach Pedro adjusts the game
Xu Can is a boxing king who grew up eating "hundred family meals". Zhongwei's old coach Bao Jin is his enlightenment coach, in Zhou Chao's view, it is Pacquiao's early target master Ellen who helped him form a professional style, his current coach is The Filipino Franklin, the Chinese target master Macri, when preparing for the United States to help him adjust the game is the famous coach Pedro, he also often rubs the training of Xiong Chaozhong and Qiu Xiaojun, and gives them sparring... It's the savage growth of a grassroots boxer who sucks up nutrients from all sides like a sponge.
There is no one-step to the heavenly boxer story. Boxers attack the title of Boxer, starting with a ranking match inside the gym. Stand out in order to get the opportunity to compete. For professional boxers, training and survival are based on their own fists. Playing games, earning appearance fees, winning, harvesting higher appearance fees and more sponsor favors can hire better coaches, target engineers and nutritionists, and establish a sound training system and operation team.
Relying on his fists, Xu Can gradually won a position within Zhongwei. Every day he worked inside the boxing gym, he longed to go out to play, eager to meet one victory after another in the outside world.
However, when the opportunity came, Xu Can lost the punch. In September 2014, he lost to Bao Dong, an amateur boxer who played professional boxing for the first time and finished fifth at the National Games.
In that boxing match, Xu Can's physical advantage was undoubtedly revealed, chasing his opponent and running all over the field. But the problem is also obvious, he is not accustomed to the flexibility of amateur boxing masters. Bao Dong's arms are long, tall, and accurate counterattacks pass through Xu Can's cage defense and hit his face directly; in addition, Xu Can always hopes to wait until he has stood firm, and then adjust his posture before swinging a heavy fist to attack, which gives the opponent time to breathe and prepare.
In the past, Xu Can often got experience and lessons in the face of failure, as well as fighting spirit.
The day after losing to Bao Dong, Xu Can slashed his ambition and cut off the small braids that had been left behind his head for several years. The failure gave him more reflection on technique and playing style.
Mark Rui, the target master who is now accompanying Xu Can, entered Zhongwei To learn boxing in that year. He remembered that After losing the punch, Xu Can did not show depression, but became more focused. His words were even less, and a man stood in front of the mirror silently jumping rope, hitting the air, flashing left and right. No one paid attention to a loser, and Xu Can did not pay attention to others. The imaginary enemy in front of him became clearer, and he was going to knock him down.
Xu Can, who is in his early 20s, has become the most obsessed with training in the team. He came to the gym every day to fight boxing, and there was no rest. Even now when he arrives at the M23 Boxing Gym in Beijing, he often trains himself until his legs are shaking, and the team strictly orders him to take a day off on Sundays.
That failure gave Xu Can the push to push forward. The following year, in June 2015, Liu Gang took Xu Can to Australia to upgrade to play 140 pounds (63KG class), which was very difficult, he resisted, conquered the referee with excellent defensive skills, and won the WBA Oceania gold belt away. Hard training, coupled with rising good results, since 2016, Xu Can has become the core training object of the team.
A winning heart, repeatedly tempered, the stronger it is. He understood a truth, "If you win, you can continue to go down." "2019 is the year of Xu Can's outbreak, entering the New Year, Liu Gang replaced the WeChat avatar with Xu Can's training photo, when Xu Can defeated Roxas in Houston on January 27 and won the WBA Featherweight World Boxing Champion Gold Belt, Liu Gang changed his avatar again, it is the poster of boxing king Xu Can, and the names of the three sponsoring merchants are listed below the poster.
At the time he was 25 years old, he succeeded and changed his destiny and that of his family. Father Xu Xiaolong no longer has to ride a bicycle, and after midnight, he goes to the door of the Kunming bar to collect bottles.
It's time to stand up
After losing the golden belt of the world boxing king, another person who silently waited for Xu Can to cheer up was his father Xu Xiaolong.
"My father was very strict with me before," Xu Can said, but since he lost his golden belt last year, he obviously felt that his father had become gentler, and for a long time, his father did not talk to him about boxing, nor did he talk about training, but just shared his daily life, went out to take a picture of the cloudy sky in autumn in Kunming, sent it to him; fried a few dishes, took a picture, sent it to him; ran more than ten kilometers in the morning, how many push-ups he did, and would also talk to Xu Can... Men are not good at expressing emotions, father and son are more euphemistic, Xu Xiaolong has to find a reason or find something to send a message every day, even if the son sometimes does not reply.
It was not until after last year's National Day that Xu Xiaolong and Xu Can officially had a phone call: "It's time to stand up and accept failure, there is nothing wrong with the road we took, we can't stop because of a failure." ”
Xu Can has always been glad that professional boxing is the most correct path in his life. With the support of his parents behind him and the help of the company's team, he won the world boxing championship before the epidemic, and the first two defending battles were easily won... The same age boxers in the Zhongwei Boxing Gym are still the only ones still fighting, and the teammates at that time have retired one after another, opening a boxing gym or changing careers to find another way.
His father, Xu Xiaolong, took him on the road of boxing. His father's original name was Xu Guolong, and because he loved martial arts and worshipped Bruce Lee, he changed his name to "Xu Xiaolong". When Xu Can was a teenager, his father took him to run mountains, practice boxing, dance guns and sticks, and his physical strength laid the foundation at that time. One day, Xu Xiaolong solemnly told his son, "You will definitely become the world boxing king in the future." Xu Can didn't understand, but he believed in his father, and he planted a seed of a boxing king in his heart.
At that time, China did not have a world boxing champion. Xu Xiaolong was flipping through a boxing magazine when he read an article that Kunming's Zhongwei Boxing Gym had produced the mainland's first Asian boxing champion Xu Congliang (former WBA Asia Pacific boxer), so in April 2010, Xu Can had just turned 16 years old, and the head of the family, Xu Xiaolong, made a decision to move his family to Kunming.
Before, Xu Xiaolong opened a bakery, and the life of the three people was quite good. Desperate, after going to Kunming, in order to maintain his life and learn boxing for his son, Xu Xiaolong rode his bicycle to the door of the bar every night to pick up bottles, small bottles can sell for 2 cents, larger 3 cents, not much money at the end of the day, the body is tired of problems. Xu Can's mother sells clothes in a shopping mall in Kunming, and even after he became the world boxing champion, her mother still did the job.
The past comes to mind. Xu Can did not cry in front of people, even if he was knocked down in the boxing ring and his cheeks were bleeding, he never shed tears. But recalling his father's hardships, Xu Can said and said, tears could not control the fall, causing him to take off his hat with one hand and cover his hair with the other hand to hide his excitement.
"This is my biggest motivation," Xu Can said, "my parents are in the front, eating all the suffering for me, I just eat some of the pain of skin and flesh, it is nothing." ”
Figure | Xu Can during the Period of the Kunming Zhongwei Boxing Gym
With the efforts of his parents, the boy Xu Can walked into the Zhongwei Boxing Gym. When he was young, he was mature and sensible, and helped Liu Gang take care of the boxing gym after practicing boxing. Someone came for consultation, and he took a tour; there were trainees looking for a place to live, and he introduced houses in the nearby village; someone trained cramps, and he went up to stretch and massage. The boxers were sweating profusely, sweat was running down the floor, and he wiped it with a mop, over and over again.
At that time, his parents took Xu Can to rent a village called "Yunshan Village". From the village to the boxing gym, a 10-minute walk, Xu Can woke up every day to practice boxing in the boxing gym, and went home to sleep until he was exhausted and the sky was full of stars. He was glad that his parents were around to fully support him, and he didn't have to go out to work like some boxers, which made him go forward with a breath, for his parents, for the dream of the boxing king planted in his heart, he must fight out.
The facilities of the Zhongwei Boxing Gym are old, the roof is covered with tin, there are many boxers, the indoor heat is unbearable, the smell of sweat flows freely, and the hormones of young men burst out, pouring out the primitive wildness of boxing.
The simple environment can not stop the hot-blooded teenagers, the aisles outside the door are crowded with people, before and after a punch will be encountered, most of the people are from poor grassroots, they come from all over the world, Zhongwei in 2012 out of China's first world boxing champion Xiong Chaozhong, he won the WBC World Boxing King Gold Belt. Xiong Chaozhong was a former miner, and in his hometown of Maguan County, Yunnan Province, he pushed or carried metal ore out of the mine, and at the end of the day, he was paid 10 yuan. His parents stood by the side of the road, picking up the ore that had fallen from the basket.
The story of the miners counterattacking into the king of boxing really happened, which inspired too many people, behind Xiong Chaozhong, a group of excellent young boxers grew up, Qiu Xiaojun, Wang Xinghua, Yang Xingxin, Wei Xianqian and others, working as a security guard or setting up a stall on weekdays, practicing boxing at night, these "strivers" outside the national system have the same goal - to play professional games, become boxing kings, and take off the shining golden belt.
When Xiong Chaozhong put on the gold belt, Xu Canlai learned boxing for two and a half years, and he was still a little brother in front of all the brothers. However, Liu Gang was optimistic about him at that time, "a talented boxer, with good body proportions, light weight, and good physical fitness." ”
Life is like a fist
Five and a half months after losing the golden belt of the world boxing champion, in the comprehensive training room of the M23 boxing gym in Beijing, recalling that dark day, Xu Can bowed his head, his words were still weak, and sometimes he rubbed his fingers, like a child who had done something wrong.
Failure has not yet been digested. But since forcing himself to watch the boxing video in October last year, the inertia and temperament of rushing forward in the face of defeat are gradually returning to his body.
On this day in mid-January, Xu Can was wearing black sweatpants, a black hoodie, and a black hat, and when he first opened the conversation box, his cheeks were slightly red. Over the years, he has been short hair, round face, thin figure, but the killing in the eyes is less, more reflective of the grind of the years and the calmness of a man.
After Xiong Chaozhong and Zou Shiming, China's third world professional boxing champion will celebrate his 28th birthday in March. There was not much time left for him to regain the golden belt. As he waited, he anxiously confronted the consumption of time.
Figure | In 2019, Xu Can won the world boxing champion gold belt
If professional boxers want to improve their grades and days, they must have boxing matches to play. However, from the outbreak of the epidemic in early 2020 to the time of being knocked down by Leigh Wood TKO (technical knockdown), in the past year and a half, in view of the epidemic prevention and control, many events have been cancelled or postponed, and Xu Can has not played a single game.
The boxers have no match to play, let alone other boxers. In 2019, there were more than 400 registered professional boxers in China, and now there are only about 200. Some people are older and choose to retire; some people have no game and no appearance fee, training cannot be sustained, and can only give up; and others are waiting.
Previously, Xu Can's gold belt defense tour was also difficult to advance in waiting and obstruction. Before playing Against Leigh Wood in England in August 2021, he spent half a year alone in the United States, training while waiting for the game.
The first boxing match was not held because of contract problems; the second game, the opponent near the start of the match was infected with the new crown; the third game, dragging and dragging around without any problem, the other party did not tell the reason. Leigh Wood was the fourth opponent, and the tournament was only finalized in early July, leaving Xu Can with only four weeks left to prepare.
He was ready to return to China at the end of June, but he didn't expect the match with Leigh Wood to be finalized, and he felt that after going out for so long, he still had to fight, "but to be honest, I'm not in good shape." Staying abroad for a long time, there is no friend who can talk around, Xu Can said that his psychology is wrong, lonely, lonely, emotional difficult to channel, the game is repeatedly delayed, psychological anxiety, will is consumed, "I often insomnia, poor rest, poor physical fitness, the state slowly declined." ”
Someone used the word "downturn" to evaluate Xu Can's performance in the defense of the title, and he agreed, "My heart is not strong enough, I did not resist this pressure." After the National Day last year, accompanied by Macri, Xu Can watched the boxing match for the first time. He no longer evades, accepts failure, and confronts shortcomings and deficiencies, "As soon as I came into contact with Leigh Wood, I felt a little uncomfortable, and he had a lot of front fists, but I couldn't beat them." By the fifth and sixth rounds, I was starting to get impatient, uncool, and realized I might lose. Later, he became more and more anxious and was held back by his opponent. ”
In recent years, Xu Can's coach is The Filipino Franklin, the cooperation between the two people tacit understanding, Xu Can trusts him, he is also proud to cultivate the world boxing champion. But unluckily, during the Spring Festival in 2020, Franklin returned to his hometown to visit his relatives, because the epidemic did not come back. He sent Xu Can a training plan every week, which was executed by The Chinese target master, Makry.
"We reviewed and summarized together, and he recovered well. I fed him the target, and I could feel the penetration of his swinging fist. Now let him move his feet more, and the cross steps are more useful than before. Don't be too far ahead, let him punch more front fists, and the frequency should be raised. Mari stressed, "Xu Can is not a player who can't stand up after losing once." Failure will give him experience, he will improve, and the more he fights, the stronger he gets. ”
Boxing fans have judged Xu Can's failure, some people say that he wants to win and is afraid of losing, too stable; some people say that he lacks research on his opponents before the game, and there is a lack of changes in the game; some people say that he wants to strengthen heavy punches...
"In the past six months, have you strengthened your heavy punches?"
He smiled, "In the first two years, I listened to too many outside voices and didn't control myself. They said that I was not enough to punch hard, so I strengthened the heavy punch, which was actually a pro and a disadvantage, and I ignored the training of flexibility. ”
The failure made Xu Can truly realize what style of play he should insist on. No boxer is perfect, the current training, to play to the strengths and avoid the weaknesses, he strives to regain the previous sense of agility, focusing on physical fitness, punch combos.
Liu Gang also waited until October last year to find Xu Can to talk about the game and talk about the future. Liu Gang, a boxer by birth, knows that it takes a lot of courage and a big heart to get out of the shadow of failure, but he is not too worried, "I believe him." Xu Can is Xu Can. He is different from others. ”
Now, as long as he is put into training, Xu Can is not very cranky. Those emotions of fear, denial, doubt, and anger slowly weaken and dissolve with the sound of "snapping" targets. He was trying to find himself, the powerful, confident, murderous boxer in his eyes.
He began to crave a match and constantly asked the company to arrange boxing matches. Liu Gang is approaching him for the game, due to the epidemic prevention policy, it is not possible for foreign boxers to come in and compete, they can only go out. Liu Gang revealed that according to the agreement, xu can lost the golden belt after there was a second battle with Lee Wood, but it was necessary to finalize the details within 90 days and complete it within 120 days, but due to the control of the epidemic, this boxing match was postponed again and again, and it was not resolved.
Professional boxing is a highly commercial operation, Xu Can's next game, to play a qualifying match, after obtaining high points before launching an attack on the golden belt, "we have been passive," Liu Gang said.
Liu Gang and his boxers have been fighting against "passive", professional boxing is an imported product, there is no boxing king, there is no achievement in the hand, there is no right to speak in the world boxing ring. In 2003, Liu Gang obtained a professional boxing agent license in Australia and returned to China to establish the Zhongwei Boxing Gym, where he was determined to cultivate the world boxing king in ten years. At the end of 2012, Xiong Chaozhong turned out to be a reality, making Liu Gang's dream come true.
Seven years later, the disciple Xu Can won the golden belt again, which made Liu Gang full of confidence and planned to launch more boxing kings, "Xiong Chaozhong At that time, China was still a bystander of professional boxing, watch a hilarity. By the time Xu Can arrived, we were already participants, with boxing champions, highly ranked boxers, and an operation team in line with international standards. ”
However, the outbreak of the epidemic, the cancellation and suspension of boxing matches, and the increase in the complexity of domestic and foreign exchanges have cooled the enthusiasm of boxers, just like a heavy punch that fell from nowhere, and it has not been slowed down for a long time.
Fist is like life, life is like fist.
Xu Can had been knocked down, and he had also experienced all kinds of dissatisfaction in life, and he thought about giving up. "Giving up" is easy to say, but in the end, Xu Can found that what he would do after all was just staring at the clenched fists and asking himself: "Can you put it down?" ”
- END -
Written by | Zhang Xinming
Edit | Wen Lihong