i recently was looking at an old 1993 ko magazine and it had myong woo yuh as the poster in the middle of the magazine. On the information page it said that he was voted the greatest korean fighter ever, even over chang. So i went and bought the fighting sets of yuh, jung koo chang, sung kil moon and in chul baek and to my surprise found them to be very exciting fighters. I particularly was impressesed by yuh and believe he was the best of korea still. Very exciting fights in all of the fighters collections and a lot of hitting and hitting right back. i have seen a lot of korean fighters thru the years i went to fights and these sets, the action is terrific. i dont know what the announcers are saying but the fights themselves are good
Yuh was very good but Chang is generally considered better because he had 95÷ of the same accomplishments and did it in the deeper division. Yuh was more consistent though. Chang was voted into the hall first, and is the choice for best Korean fighter amongst Koreans (at least the few that frequent boxing forums). And yes the were a brilliant lot.
Chang was better than Yuh. Hell, I'd have Moon over Yuh, although Yuh was terrific too. The easiest comparison to make is that Chang is the Korean Duran and Yuh is the Korean Chavez (in terms of stylistic comparison) Chang beat the much better fighters and arguably deserved to win the WBC (lineal) flyweight crown in his rematch with Chitalada. Even Yuh concedes that Chang was the best.
In actual fact for many years I believe Soo-Hwan Hong was the favourite in Korea. Not surprising, he was very exciting, hit hard and a comeback kid type of fighter, as well as winning titles in two weight divisions and fighting many top quality opponents.
I wish some English speaking fight fans would sit down with some friends and do commentary over the great foreign fights, and post it to youtube, the way you see a lot of Eastern Europeans doing with Showtime and HBO fights. Just turn down the volume on the recording and then do a play by play, or talk about the fighter's career. It would make all those classic Asian and Latin American fights easier to watch and a little more educational.
aye, he was pounding a film-star or something like that too, so he had the celebrity couple thing going on throughout his career as well. His controversial stoppage loss against Zamora has been mentioned to me a few times as being by far the most famous boxing contest involving a South Korean back in the 70s\80s.It probably still is, i'd guess.
Honorable mention goes to Dong-Kyun Yum and Jun-Suk Hwang. Yum decked Wilfredo Gomez briefly before succumbing to the great Bazooka in 12 in Gomez's title winning performance...no other 122 pounder would have the temerity to deck Gomez during the Puerto Rican's reign of terror in that division. Once Gomez got into the fight after the 1st round, it was all pretty hopeless for the Korean, but considering the circumstances of who he was fighting, he put up a gallant effort before the inevitable happened. Jum-Suk Hwang likewise decked Curry, probably his lone highlight in a bout that saw Curry come on in the later rounds to bloody and batter Hwang to earn a 15 round decision and the welter title. These two aren't among the best that Korea has produced, but they were tough, and like I say...deserve honorable mention.
There has not been a lot of top level Korean boxers lately. I would say Junk-Koo Chang was the best and Yuh as second best. Years back there was an excellent Korean boxing movie called the Champion. Give it a look.
I think Yuh is way better than Moon. And I like him over the Chang guy too. In the KO in the early 90s it said Yuh was voted the best ever evn over Chang. But I guess it comes down to who a person likes best. I found Yuh very exciting and moreso than the other two.
Has there ever been an accomplished Korean "stylist" of note? All the ones I've seen were pressure fighters or outright brawlers.
If you're meaning a stylist in more of a pure boxing\mainly outfighter sort of sense Chan-Hee Park was probably the best stylist. Amatuer star that made his name by outboxing a still excellent Canto with only a handful of fights to his name. He had elite skills and speed, but was notorious for his lack of dedication and relative lack of toughness\stamina.Something of a front runner, he was in his element in polite technical fights, but vulnerable to a determined aggressive opponent. Dong-Kyun Yum, who ran into Wilfredo Gomez was a pure boxer\stick and move stylist.Just an ok\decent fighter though. It's definitely true that most of the better fighters back in Korean boxing's better years were aggressive fighters.
That was probably just some random american sportswriters poll or something.It's not hard to imagine yuh topping it at the time as he had not long finished his long run as champ and along with Moon would be the freshest in the memory compared to guys like Chang and Park. I wouldn't say Yuh was way better than Moon.He was more technically skilled, but Moon was a great punching slugger, about the closest to Marciano at those weights in style and attributes.Both were very durable, but Moon fought and beat better fighters like a past-prime(but still quite good) Gilberto Roman, Nana Konadu, Richardson etc Yuh's comp was pretty weak.Joey Olivo or leo Gamez were probably the best he fought and he had a real hard time with both(though did much better eventually against Gamez).Harder than Moon did with Roman and Konadu. Neither were around that long, though moon's longevity was particularly poor, which is no surprise considering his style and long amatuer career.Pretty close between the two imo.
Soon Chun Kwon Dirty as he was he gave Jiro Wantabe hell and I think you guys would like some of his fights.
