If you've been around long enough you probably remember back in the 80s it was not uncommon to see several Korean boxing ranked in the top ten of many of the lighter divisions, if not actually having a champion from Korea but these days you just never see any Korean boxers in professional boxing like that. What happened?
Just quickly because I'm busy today. I live in South Korea an I've noticed that while 10 years ago I never saw boxing gyms anywhere, it seems that over the past few years they've begun to spring up everywhere, mainly for kids (middle school age) to learn boxing (rather than established fighters to train). Also the teenage generation is getting a lot taller and bigger due to different diets, which probably also include growth hormones in meat, so Koreans could emerge into high weight classes. Part of the reason I think is that since the 1980's the education system has got harsher and harsher. No-one aged 13-20 has time to learn/train to box because of their long school hours. High school will often be 8.30 am to 10.30 pm, and even middle school kids will be at private institutes until 7 pm each night. There is a lot of kickboxing on free-to-air TV here, but little boxing. I've seen boxing on free-to-air in Indonesia an Thailand but not here. Everyone is fighting to get into a high ranked university in order to get a job, rather than having time to fight as part of a sport.
Trump is a coward, he would run from Kim Jong Un, like he ran when it was his time to fight in Nam, when it was Trump's time to fight, he ran like hell, had a doctor claim he had spurs on his foot, but while hiding in America he was playing soccer and partying while Sen, McCain was a POW, Sen, Kerry was wounded three times, Sen. Bob Kerry lost a leg, awarded the medal of honor, but Trump has no respect for them! Trump is a damned liar! I did a lot of kick boxing years ago, PKA, which was shown on Showtime...................it went bankrupt, why I don't know!
PS: Kostya Tszyu is Korean heritage on his fathers side. I think his last name is actually a Korean name adjusted for Russian. Golovkin is part Korean also. A lot of Koreans migrated to Soviet central Asia at one time. One of the main Kazakhstani billionaires, Vladimir Kim, is ethnically Korean.
A fellow boxing fan residing in Korea, very nice! Agree with everything here, but I'd also like to add a few things - Korea has an all or nothing attitude. If you choose to take the sports route, you are literally playing sports all your life. No student athletes, you are simply doing sports all throughout highschool and College. In college, the athletes aren't required to take any classes that aren't sports related. For example - first period basketball second period soccer etc. -Korea is a nation that is very easily influenced by the media, and have a sheep mentality. Whatever sport is "in" right now, that's whats hot. All the athletes are either trying to play baseball, soccer, or golf. Kids that are interested in combat sports are mostly doing MMA, not boxing. There have been no star boxers in Korea for a few decades. Mannnn if Golovkin repped his Korean side even a BIT, he would legit be one of THE biggest stars in Korea. Hines Ward was huge here when the Steelers won the Super Bowl, and 99% of Koreans don't even know what football is. Denis Kang is half Korean but he was on commercials all the time
Stonehands, I agree with you above. Even at high school there are students who are 80% baseball sports students who will, as you say, go on to do baseball through-out university. Which is bizarre with them putting all their eggs in one basket like that. It's true about the all or nothing mindset. A lot of kids do taekwondo from a young age. The govt back taekwondo a lot because it leads to medal at international comps. There's an interest in combat sports but boxing really needs to start experimenting more with events in East Asia. If I remember correctly Mike Tyson had a couple of fights in Japan even before Douglas. Like with US Football, Koreans don't really have many reference points for boxing these days. There's certainly the population to market a boxing event to. Greater metro Seoul is 25 million plus within driving distance of most potential venues.
