Bizarre 1988 Olympics incident when Byun Jung-Il protested decision and refused to leave the ring

Have you seen full footage of the bout? Scored it? - whacky.

 

I remembered this moment vividly - as well as the entire context leading up to it.

Basically, the Byun blow-up in the 88 Seoul Olympics - especially the reaction of the South Korean boxing officials (who assaulted the referee) - was not an isolated event. Instead, it was the consequence of multiple Olympic boxing grievances and frustrations that traced back to at least the 84 LA Olympics and arguably the 76 Montreal Olympics. Essentially, the Koreans were infuriated that they were (in their opinion) jobbed even in their home, where they thought the table would finally turn in their favor after suffering multiple unfair decisions in foreign lands.

The Byun fiasco also likely led to the Roy Jones travesty.

Anyways, so the South Koreans have not been happy about Olympic boxing decisions at least since 1976. There they were expecting gold from Chan Hee-Park, who had never lost an international match and only lost once domestically. Most domestic observers seem to agree that he beat the Cuban fighter, the eventual gold winner, decisively in the quarterfinals. But he didn't get the decision. There was also some controversy regarding Chung-il Choi's quarterfinals loss as well.

Fast forward to the 1984 Olympics. South Korea was expecting four golds (Kwang-sun Kim, Young-mo Huh, Sung-kil Moon, and Dong-kil Kim). They ended up with one (Joon-sup Shin). Moon couldn't continue due to a headbutt that led to a cut; Huh was not himself due to a flu. Both eliminations were just bad luck, but they represented terrible letdowns nonetheless for the Koreans.

But real anger toward Americans built up regarding the two Kims. Kwang-sun Kim ended up losing a first round decision to Paul Gonzalez, whom I believe won the award as the best fighter in the entire Olympics. While I was angry at the time, I felt Gonzalez was right to be declared winner when I watched the fight later. But there were grumblings with the refereeing, too. Some thought the second referee's knockdown was undeserved; some also thought Gonzalez should've been given a referee's knockdown before Kim's headgear went undone - which is another story. (I think Gonzalez would have been knocked out, if the headgear remained intact - another case of bad luck.) Finally, Dong-kil Kim lost a semifinal decision to Jerry Page. This is the one case where I think the Korean fighter clearly won, but it wasn't exactly Si-hun Park vs. Roy Jones type of decision. But the Koreans were mad. They threatened to boycott rest of the Olympics. The head of the Korean boxing organization or Olympic organization even obliquely threatened retribution in 1988, when South Korea would be the Olympic host. Perhaps partly as a result, Hi-Sup Shin was given the decision against Virgil Hill in the finals.

So this is the background. The Korean boxing community had reached a combustible moment by the time of the 88 Olympics, and anything could've set the fuse. The Byun fight and its aftermath represented the match that lit that fuse.

 

Here's the full fight. It's the second match and starts around 9:55. The issue was that both fighters were fouling a lot, and only Byun was repeatedly penalized by the referee. (Hristov was holding Byun incessantly and pulling his head down; Byun retaliated by trying to flip him a few times, among other things.) The head of the international amateur boxing body's officiating was Bulgarian, so there was speculation of improper influence:

This content is protected

 

I remember turning on the Olympics and he was sitting in the corner in the dark. Bob Costas kept trying to recap what had happened. They left the camera on him sitting there until he decided to get up and leave.

I also remember the interview with the referee. He fled the country. Didn't stick around.

 

It reminds me when the referee stopped the fight perhaps prematurely in Zamora vs. Soo-hwan Hong II. I think Hong's brother, among others, attacked the referee, and there was a bedlam all around.