On the evening of October 7, in the boxing arena of Florida, China's former WBA featherweight world boxing champion Xu Can and Mexico "Junior Lion" Brandon Benitez fought ten rounds. If we use two words to describe this game, it is "tragic" and "stalemate".
The brave "Little Lion" showed a typical Mexican style of play. At the beginning of the game, he punched Xu Can and bleed.
Xu Can, who had been out of the battle formation for a long time, was a little slow to heat up, and the mid- and long-distance jabs could not curb the opponent's pounce. It was not until the fifth round that Xu Can repelled the declining Benitez with his familiar oppressive play, gradually gaining the upper hand.
Benitez is amazing willpower and fights Xu Can to the end. In the end, Xu Can lost the dispute with the 94:96, 97:93, and 94:96. 14 months after leaving the ring, Xu Can regretfully failed to raise his winning arm in the return battle.
For Chinese boxing fans, this is a sleepless night.
No matter how much controversy is, the result cannot be changed. Many people want to urgently understand: what happened at the competition site, how is Xu Can's current condition, and where should Chinese boxing go next?
Orbital fractures, a bloody battle with twists and turns
Originally Xu Can was going to play against Benitez on May 20 this year, but due to a rib injury, the game was postponed for more than 4 months. After being injured for 100 days, Xu Can spent more than half of his time recuperating.
"The injury was in the armpit position at that time. At first, I thought it was muscle strain . I continued to train with the injury for half a month. Later, I went to the hospital because I became more and more painful. The doctor asked me to rest for more than a month, resume training in June, and officially started to enter systematic training in August."
Injuries in boxing are not uncommon, and this is not the first time Xu Can faces injuries. But when Xu Can thought that everything would return to normal after overcoming the rib injury, he encountered even greater trouble in the game.
"When I first came on stage, I hadn't played for too long, and my body was a little stiff, and I was a little unfamiliar with trying long-distance play. I originally wanted to move my foot more, but my bent arm was not so tight, and I was hit by my opponent. Everyone saw that my nose was bleeding all the time. In fact, the main reason was not that the injury was in my nose, but the fracture of my eye socket. Blood was sprayed out from my nose and could not be stopped." The consequence of the fracture of my right eye socket was that my vision was blurred. In the ever-changing boxing ring, it was extremely dangerous to not see my opponent's fist, so Xu Can was penetrated by Benitez's front fist again and again.
"At the beginning, I saw the ghost of my right eye. At the beginning of the fifth round, I could no longer see the opponent's front fist. I could only see his back fist, and I could only push forward with the feeling. I didn't tell the coach that because the new coach was not familiar with me, I was afraid that the referee would terminate the game. At that time, I didn't know that it was a fracture of the eye socket, and thought it was caused by the impact of the eyeball, so I was waiting for it to recover on its own."
After losing the vision of one eye, Xu Can could not completely suppress the front jab of the Mexican boxer. Even so, he rushed forward fearlessly against his fists and hit the opponent until the last second of the game. When the ten rounds of battle ended and waiting for the referee to announce the judgment, Xu Can once thought that he had won the battle.
"This game was really close, but I didn't get too many punches. I could see his backhand punch. He just hit me with his front punch. While waiting for the verdict, I still thought I would be the winner, but I respect the referee."
Gains and losses, Xu Can's thinking
In the cruel and passionate sport of boxing, there is never a shortage of injuries and suffering, but Xu Can never likes to use "pain narratives" to package himself, and he doesn't want to make excuses for failure.
This young boxer has delicate thoughts, just like his millimeter-accurate punching technique. He is used to drawing strength from failure by thinking about self-digestion difficulties. Although the process may be very painful, it is the only way to grow.
Xu Can did not rest after the game. At five in the morning of the United States, he got up to run outdoors. During the running process, he reviewed the things that this game brought to himself little by little, resetting the glory of the past, and finding the direction for the next step.
"For me, this is just a game. This time I made some new attempts and gained new results. The opponent used to play uppercut and swing more. Unexpectedly, this time I mainly played straight punch , and the opponent was also studying me. I increased my pace and moved it. It would be great if the defense could be more compact. Press the distance closer and bite it tighter. Perhaps the result would be different."
In addition to the gains in tactical transformation, Xu Can has a deeper understanding of his physical condition. This time, in order to reduce his weight to the featherweight standard, Xu Can lost 16 kilograms and his body fat percentage was below 6.
Although Xu Can's weight successfully met the standard, his condition was greatly affected. "On the court, I feel very soft, my center of gravity is high, my legs are not standing steadily, and I am a little overwhelmed. I know that my weight can be reduced, but it is not in the best state, including when I was interviewed before the game, my mental state is not very good."
Xu Can ascended the world championship at the age of 24. Although he is still the golden age of a boxer at the age of 28, his long-term training has increased his body muscle mass and it becomes more difficult to lose weight. If he cannot go to the ring in a "full blood" state, it is even more difficult to hit the winning punch in a top-level battle.
Whether to upgrade to 130 pounds and open up a new world is a question facing Xu Can and the team.
Everything is back to zero, Chinese boxing starts again
Not long ago, Meng Fanlong and Zhang Zhilei both Chinese boxers lost overseas. When Xu Can set foot on the American arena, Chinese boxing did not wait for a long-awaited victory.
Fist Power Sihai CEO Lu Xiaolong once used water temperature to compare the development of Chinese professional boxing . "Before Xu Can won the championship, the water temperature of professional boxing was only 50 degrees, which was heating up, but it was not hot yet, let alone boiling. Professional sports need super stars. Xu Can won the world boxing champion gold belt to increase the water temperature by 10 degrees."
But no one expected that the epidemic suddenly came, and for Chinese professional boxing, which was continuing to heat up, it was almost a bottom-up to remove the fire. Behind the empty stadium and ring is a large loss of excellent boxers.
There is no match to fight the boxer, like an eagle with wings broken. Xu Can has one thing in common with two consecutive losses, that is, he has been separated from the battle formation for a long time.
2019 is the time when Xu Can is in the best condition. He not only defeated Rojas to win the WBA featherweight gold belt, becoming the youngest featherweight champion in the world boxing world in 10 years, but also won three victories in one go.
Especially in the defending match against Manny Robles, Xu Can transformed into "Humanoid Gatlin" and shot 1562 punches, creating a new single-game record for featherweight punches. At that time, Xu Can played better and better in the ring, and his upward momentum was amazing.
But after that, Xu Can didn’t play for 19 months, and then did not show his past momentum in the game against Leigh Wood and threw away the gold belt.
This return match was decided to lose to Benitez. In addition to the impact of eye socket injuries, the slow start of the game was also the main reason, which is closely related to the 14-month offseason.
In addition to lacking opportunities for competition, the epidemic has made it difficult for high-level foreign coaches and foreign sparring coaches to enter the country, and has also made the development of professional boxing in China difficult.
failed in the return battle, which hindered Xu Can's plan to revenge Wood, but it would not stop him. Xu Can: "Boxing is not a job for me, but a lifestyle.
The biggest motivation for my boxing is to make my family's life better. I will continue to work hard, continue to improve myself, and continue to fight."
Lu Xiaolong called Xu Can "a person born for boxing". What the team needs to do is to win more opportunities for him.
"After all, this is an adjustment match. Our core task is to let him find his best form as soon as possible through several games, so that he can find his own rhythm and the feeling of winning the championship in the boxing ring. There is still a long way to go in the future. We have been on the road and will never lack the courage to start over." Behind the four words "start again" are the three years of dormant and hardship of Chinese professional boxing. But fortunately, there are still thousands of boxing fans in China paying attention to boxing and accompanying the boxers through the trough.
This competition was exclusively broadcast on KOTV. Half an hour before the game started, the APP was severely stuck because the number of viewers logged in exceeded expectations. The event party turned to live broadcasts on short videos and other platforms. Without any warm-up, the attention was amazing, and the number of viewers was close to 1 million.
Self-growth, team support and the attention of millions of boxing fans are Xu Can’s confidence to start over and the capital for Chinese boxing to start again. The former honor has returned to zero, and the road ahead is still long. Come on Xu Can!
