King of Sports 208 Tang Yan vs Lopez 3

Whoosh!

He looked almost weightless, as he pulled off a Michael Jackson-esque tilt backwards to avoid Lopez's sharp hook of a right.

Then like a spring recoiling, he rebounded back up straight and ripped home a short right, followed by a left. And then another right. The crowd rose with a roar. 

"What an interesting boxer." Lomachenko said, showing a look of anticipation at this.

"Tang Yan was being deliberate! He was tempting Lopez to swing!" Liu Xinyu called out, grasping the situation.

Tang Yan moved into Lopez, forcing him across the ring, ripping across his middle with piston-like precision before switching aim to his face. Lopez tried to fight back but he had been successfully drawn out by Tang Yan.

Due to his punch, he couldn't retract back his arms in time to set a defense and he was winded by Tang Yan's blows to his midsection, making his breath weak as he tried to punch back at Tang Yan, jabbing and crossing. 

But with his breathing erratic and his mind in overgear, his punches lacked real venom.

Tang Yan took on some punishment to get Lopez where he couldn't slip away, he rocked him with a right hook to the jaw and dropped his left fist half-way before hooking it into Lopez's body. Lopez staggered slightly but fought back with dogged ferocity. 

The audience at the scene exploded in an instant, and the explosive cheers were overwhelming.

Both were battling now, their hardest. Tang Yan forgot his jabs as they squared away in the center of the ring.

Head burrowed between his shoulders, Lopez answered him with flying fists. 

But Lopez folded first. 

Tang Yan ripped a short left into his solar plexus and left him gasping. The Cuban's hands dropped. Tang Yan splashed rights and lefts into his face and drove him across the ring. A crisp left hook straightened Lopez up before.....

Bam!

A whistling right uppercut dropped him for the count.

1.....

2.....

3.....

"KO! KO! KO" chants rang out, alongside chants of Tang Yan's name.

4.....

5.....

6.....

7.....

Lopez struggled to his knees, raised one foot under him before sprawling forward onto his face. 

"8!"

"9!"

"10!"

For the last three seconds, the audience at the scene counted down with the referee.

When the last count sounded, the tumultuous roar of the crowd sounded across the stadium 

"And it's over." Lomachenko said with a smile as Lopez was counted out. From disappointment to interest, his view of Tang Yan changed in less than half a round.

"Success! Tang Yan's broken into the men's 60 kg final!" Yang Jian exclaimed in the CCTV booth.

"Yes hahaha!!!" Estchenko also shouted excitedly from the sidelines. Tang Yan broke into the final, which meant he won one of the remaining two places outside the top 10.

Tang Yan also shouted along, celebrating, his emotions high from the scene.

"Winner, Tang Yan!" As the referee raised Tang Yan's arm high, the atmosphere at the scene peaked.

"Boxing killer! Boxing killer!"

Sections of the crowd who knew Tang Yan's nickname began to chant. Compared to old veterans like Lopez, they hoped to see a match between a young upcomer like Tang Yan and Lomachenko in the final.

The semi-final matches finally ended. On the Chinese team's side, only Zou Shiming and Tang Yan broke into the finals.

For the Chinese boxing team, there was still a long way to go to achieve a dominant position on the world stage.

.....

October 8, 2011, China, today happened to be the end of Golden Week, a national holiday. People were begrudgingly ending their vacations and heading back to work.

But it was a good day in Baku and a good day for many boxing fans.

Because today, in Baku, Azerbaijan, the World Boxing Championships ushered in the final day.

Today, in addition to Zou Shiming's bid for his second gold medal in the World Championships, Tang Yan would usher in a peak matchup between him and Lomachenko.

As usual, after completing their weighing ins and physical examinations, the boxers began their final preparations.

The Baku Boxing Gym on this day could be described as overflowing. The boxing gym that was capable of accommodating more than 5,000 people had long been overcrowded. People were even in the aisles.

Azerbaijanis boxing lovers naturally wouldn't miss the most important day of the championships.

At the same time, in China, the time was 11 o'clock, just nearing break time. Many people took out their mobile phones and secretly watched the live broadcast.

The first fight was the 49kg final.

Zou Shiming fought against Russia's David Ayrapetyan.

At the beginning of the fight, Zou Shiming showed off his flexible offensive tactics, always suppressing David Ayrapetyan.

David Ayrapetyan launched a counterattack in the second round. He scored well with good explosive power, catching up from behind on points.

The two men were evenly matched, and fought fiercely. The fight played out through all the rounds but in the fourth and final round, Zou Shiming managed to capitalise on two mistakes by David Ayrapetyan and scored two points. Which allowed him to clinch the victory on points successfully taking gold.

With his win, the Chinese team boiled at once and back home people basked in the victory.

After Zou Shiming, the 52 and 56 kg class fights also started one after another, with the final winners being Aloan and Alvarez respectively as expected by most.

With the first three projects down, although their opponents were of good strength, the reigning champions had suffered no upset, all winning their respective events. 

This seemed to convey a certain signal. As Lomachenko, the champion in the 60kg class, was up next to fight.

But as the biggest dark horse in the World Championships, Tang Yan changed the audience's perception of him from an 'outstanding swimmer who can fight' to 'a top tier boxer' in his own right. 

They were eager to see what he could do!

Chapter end