Character丨After being “stolen” from the Olympic dream, he won the gold belt in his hometown
Market Information Network 2023-03-21 16:27:56 Source: People’s Daily Online Author: Xing Rui Comments:
The Chinese boxing world, which has been silent for a long time, has been boiling again recently because of Lu Bin’s golden belt.
On March 16, in the WBA professional boxing championship held in Yongkang, Zhejiang, Chinese player Lu Bin knocked out the former world tentative boxing champion Youtana Gansa from Thailand in just 99 seconds, and won the WBA Super League in one fell swoop. Flyweight International Gold Belt.
Yongkang, Zhejiang is Lu Bin’s hometown, where his boxing career started. Returning to his hometown after many years, he finally fulfilled his promise of “I will always get a gold medal and a gold belt”.
Olympic dreams stolen by referees
In this game against Gansa, Lu Bin firmly grasped the initiative and ended the game with a lightning backhand uppercut. After the game, he said frankly: “We made full preparations before the game, but we didn’t expect to KO the opponent so quickly. Sometimes boxing is such an accidental sport.”
Uncertainty on the field sometimes brings surprises, and sometimes brings unexpected blows.
In the men’s flyweight 1/8 finals of the 2016 Rio Olympics, Lu Bin suppressed his opponent in the match against Kenyan player Pete Game. After the game, while waiting for the referee to announce the result, the confident Lu Bin thought he had won. He raised his arms high to celebrate, but unexpectedly the referee raised the hand of the Kenyan veteran.
“The referee stole my dream.” Surprised, sad, and all kinds of complex emotions came to Lu Bin’s heart. He knelt down and kissed the ring, tears streaming down the scene.
Many years later, Lu Bin was relieved to mention this past event. In his view, this experience is also a valuable asset in his career: “When I deal with some things later, my mentality will be more mature and stable.”
What doesn’t break me makes me stronger
In 2018, Lu Bin switched to professional boxing and challenged for the title of world boxing champion. However, failure came to him again.
On July 15 of that year, Lu Bin and WBA flyweight world champion Canizares met on a narrow road. After the two sides fought hard for 10 rounds, Lu Bin was knocked down twice by his opponent in the 11th round. The world gold belt also passed him by.
This blow was more difficult to let go than the experience in the Olympics, and it once made him think of giving up. In the next few years, Lu Bin did not participate in any competitions. When he was away from the arena, he married a wife and had children, opened several boxing gyms, and started his own small business.
Lu Bin feels fulfilled and happy every day with the children. Looking at the carefree children, sometimes he also thinks of his childhood boxing days.
At the age of 12, Lu Bin was spotted by the coach of the Jinhua Sports School, and he became attached to boxing ever since. As the only child in the family, his parents did not approve of him embarking on this difficult path at first.
“In the eyes of my parents’ generation, boxing is a bloody, brutal and violent sport. In order to make them agree, I can only prove myself with my results.”
Lu Bin did what he said. At the age of 15, he became the national champion, and at the age of 18, he won the World Youth Championship in one fell swoop. At that time, facing world-class boxers such as Cuba and Uzbekistan, Lu Bin, who was not afraid of tigers as a newborn calf, had the last laugh all the way with his desire for victory.
In his opinion, winning mentality is an essential personal quality of an excellent athlete: “A soldier who doesn’t want to be a general is not a good soldier. If he dare not even think about being a champion, how can he win a gold belt!”
After defeating Gansa, Lu Bin’s next goal is the world gold belt. However, he also said that he will play a few transition games first, and then move to a higher level when the time is right.
I would like to be the leader of Chinese boxing
After becoming famous at a young age, Lu Bin was once regarded as Zou Shiming’s successor. After experiencing the ups and downs of his career, Lu Bin returned to the game with a more mature mentality and firmer goals.
Next year, Lu Bin will be 30 years old. When asked whether he was worried about his age affecting his competitive state, Lu Bin replied firmly: “A person’s ability cannot be measured by age and time. It is more about self-discipline.”
In his dictionary, the word “retired” does not yet exist. He does not want to be imprisoned by age. While pursuing honor, he also wants more people to understand the sport of boxing: “Compared with the three major goals of basketball and volleyball, boxing is still a niche sport. We need a representative People also need to promote the normalization of boxing events, so as to better promote it.”
Lu Bin also told reporters that he is willing to be the leader of Chinese boxing. In the future, he will use more practical actions to promote the development of this sport.
Original manuscript link: http://ent.people.com.cn/n1/2023/0319/c1012-32646986.html
Editor in charge: Niu Yuhang