The Return Of A Champion

Chapter 23 The World's Most Awkward Dinner Date

18 July 1987

After a couple of days of hard training and sparring, Lincoln's manager Jimmy Ellis and his trainers Eddie Futch and Teddy Atlas were with Lincoln and Lynn Jr and Lisa as well as Lucy in Lisa's old bunker as they were watching a screen as the film projecter played videos of Heavyweight World Champion Bruno Martin in some of his past fights like for example currently on was Martin's fight with Carl The Truth Williams and Lincoln took all that in as he studied how Martin fights they did a few hours ago watch his first fight with Martin in 1978 and judging on how he fights now it's very clear he'll be fighting a very different beast and on top of that an even more dangerous one. After watching the Williams fight and the tucker fight, Lincoln thought that the one weakness the champion had was that he wasn't used to going the full distance like George Foreman ( and to a lesser extent Sonny Liston before him) the unstoppable beast is always destroying opponents quickly that if a fighter can take him past 1-9 rounds he will be exhausted and more vulnerable to an attack later in the fight but Eddie Futch did remind him of some of Martin's extended wars like the 1980 title fight against Larry Holmes that went the full 15 rounds before Holmes won a very controversial split decision despite the fact he was down 3 times against french born challenger and his most recent battle with Tim Witherspoon who went down but didn't stay down against Martin as Martin would be forced to accept a unanimous decision victory instead of a knockout and of course his first fight with Lincoln himself as he never slowed down in that one, clearly Martin is a big bad monster knock out artist type of fighter but he was different from his predecessors as he was a big bad monster with a gas tank something not many sluggers had before and during his time, so taking to the later rounds and trying to knock him using a combination of frustration and exhaustion won't work, so the team had to figure some other tactics as they continued watching they saw a warning that Lincoln better heade as Martin stalked his opponents with a surgeon's precession and he could cut off a ring on and corner anybody so Lincoln must keep on the move and try to stay out of Martin's punching range as well but at the age of 30 as from tomorrow he'll be 31 it will be a very difficult assignment for him

After 3 hours of watching they exit Lisa's old bunker and

Teddy Atlas: Make sure once that bell rings for the start of the first round that your the first guy to throw a punch and it must be a punch with bad intentions, devastating tenacity and it must immediately make him have doubts in his mind on whether or not he can you beat you again, make him wonder if he still has the tools to slay the ultimate warrior and most importantly on that night make sure to bring The Ultimate Warrior with you as he being there will be key to victory as Martin has only fought Lincoln the man but he never fought Lincoln The Ultimate Warrior before, understand?

Lincoln: Yes Coach and I promise I will bring the warrior with me it's clearly the only chance I have in order to get back my title

Meanwhile with The Heavyweight division here was the slightly changed Top 10 heavyweight rankings of the heavyweight division

Bruno Martin ( Champion)

1 Lincoln Loud
2 Mike Tyson
3 Tim Witherspoon
4 James Bonecrusher Smith
5 Adilson Rodriguez
6 Carl Williams
7 James Buster Douglas
8 Michael Dokes
9 Tyrell Biggs
10 Pinklon Thomas

Tim Witherspoon fought Bernado Mercado and won a unanimous decision against him

Pinklon Thomas fought Greg Page and won a unanimous decision but he then lost to Mike Tyson in a rematch

James Buster Douglas defeated David Bey by knockout in the 6th round before fighting James Bonecrusher Smith and then getting knocked out in the 4th round by Smith

James Bonecrusher Smith fought Tyrell Biggs and knocked him in the 2nd round before fighting James Buster Douglas and then as aforementioned knocked him out in the fourth round to stay relevant in the division and hopefully get a fight against the winner of the Loud/Martin  2 title fight