Chan-hee Park vs. Charlie Magri: a fight that almost happened?

Most of what I will post will be background stuff:

Many Western fans know Park as a "one-hit wonder," known for beating the great Miguel Canto, and not much else. Yet, he was a supremely talented boxer, one of the two most naturally gifted fighters Korea has ever produced (the other being Jung-koo Chang, of course). He was a superb technician who had lost only two fights there before turning pro in over 100 fights, as I recall, and those losses were controversial, including an Olympic loss to the eventual Cuban gold medalist. His technical virtuosity, combined with his speed, made him pitch a virtual shutout against a fading but still formidable Canto. Further, when he sat down on his punches, he could crack, too - as demonstrated by his destruction of Guty Espadas, whom I recall was favored in the local press against Park.

Yet, Park should have achieved far, far more. There is a lot of talk in Korea about why he didn't achieve more. First and foremost is his poor training habits and lack of dedication to his craft. In fact, one of the reasons for his having such a compressed schedule and fighting so often (the last 4 defenses of the world flyweight title came in 5 months?!) may have been because his management wanted to keep him working or squeeze out as much out of him as possible before he imploded. This is obviously a bit reminiscent of Tyson's hectic schedule early in his career. And then, speaking of which, there's the "evil, greedy" management of boxing caricature. Who knows? But the most proximate reason is that Park met Shoji Oguma. Oguma beat Park in three fights in a year - albeit the last two were controversial, and the second was a clear gift for Oguma. And after the collective beating that Park took from Oguma, whatever little desire he had left in boxing to begin with seemed to have evaporated, and he was gone - leaving one of the greatest "what if?" stories in Korean boxing history.

But there is an alternate universe where Park, if not fulfill his vast potential, achieves a lot more than he did achieve - perhaps to the level where he is at least on the outskirts of all-time top 10 flyweight lists. In this scenario, his management made a different decision and pursues Charlie Magri instead of Oguma.

Now, let's journey back to 1980. Oguma, while a top-level contender and former champion in his heyday, was 29 (ancient by flyweight standards), had been just knocked out by Betulio Gonzalez, and was on the cusp of retirement. Magri, on the other hand, was undefeated with an excellent knockout rate, and I believe the #1 mandatory challenger for Park's WBC title. Park's management was wary of fighting hard-hitting Magri, likely knowing their fighter's chin, stamina, and heart (metaphoric!) issues. So they wanted to squeeze as many fights as possible before taking Magri as mandatory and chose Oguma as perhaps the final tune-up. They obviously miscalculated, and the rest is history.

But what if Park fought Magri instead, and Oguma faded into the sunset thereafter?

For a long time, I thought avoiding Magri was the right decision for Park at the time; anyone with fighting spirit and a punch would trouble him and grind him down, I felt. But once I watched a few, albeit a few!, Magri fights later, I am no longer sure. To begin with, like Chang, Park fought up to the level of the competition. His best performances were when he felt threatened by who stood in front of him and actually contemplated a loss as a possibility (e.g. Canto I, Espadas, Oguma II). Magri would force Park to take the fight seriously and be more disciplined and not balloon between fights. So we'd get the best Park. Second, the film I eventually watched of Magri did not impress me, especially in terms of the tools that are actually needed to defeat Park. He seemed always easy to hit, and even a faded Alfonso Lopez (the one that Chang blitzkrieged to oblivion) was able to batter him at times. And Park would bring hand speed and unorthodox angles that even prime Lopez could not dream of emulating. Magri's offense was also predictable and easy to avoid without Magri having much hand speed. Magri didn't seem to do much work on the body either, which may be essential to slowing down Park - something that Oguma fixated on. So I can easily see this one ending early with Park demolishing Magri. Not the same caliber of fighter. (But then frankly, neither was Oguma, though he was lefty and stylistically more tailored to beat Park than Magri perhaps?)

What do people who have watched both these guys think? Again, I am speaking of very limited experience viewing Magri - with many of those views coming from his later, non-prime fights to boot.

And if Park beats Magri, as I think? I think he had another year or two of prime left in him, and with his management's rapid-fire scheduling, he could string together another 4-8 defenses? Is that enough for an all-time top 10 consideration?

 

Hey, a very observant post! But first and foremost, is the poster "charliemagri1669" Charlie Magri himself? If so, he may have taken too many stiff jabs from Chitalada to be a reliable judge today! In all seriousness, I looked over his responses to that video, and he even thinks Canto was trash? As a result, I am unsure what to make of his assessment of old fighters, as well as your intent in quoting him as an authority.

But I agree with most of your misgivings about Park. And your comment about how we would've learned more about Park if the Espadas fight went longer is especially relevant. Park's three flaws, as I've said, were chin, stamina, and desire, and none of them were tested in the Espadas blowout.

Yet, I guess we now have our answer to your question about whether "Park could stand up against a skilled aggressive boxer who hits hard over the course of a fight," because, coincidentally, guess what showed up on my YouTube feed yesterday? A testimony from the proverbial horse's mouth itself, an interview with Park! This was surprising, because unlike past Korean greats such as Chang or Yuh, Park has disappeared altogether from the public gaze, and I don't recall a single interview he gave on mass media recently. More germane, Park, as if on cue, delves into all those topics that make us less sure of his pugilistic worth:

This content is protected

And boy, is the video damning. Park prosecutes himself essentially.

Getting to the heart of things, here is Park's recollection of the Espadas fight. He says he was going to try to box Espadas but decided to finish the match within the first five rounds once he tasted Espadas' power and thereby realized he couldn't last 15 rounds. So there we go. But there is even more, the kicker to speak. He says that this was the fight for which he trained hardest, and that he had never been in better physical condition for a fight. So Park himself confesses that even his "best" couldn't last 15 rounds against a skilled, hard-hitting opponent! Ouch.

The next topic you bring up is whether Park would have held together long enough for all-time greatness. We agree here, too. And the interview was also even more revealing on this topic. Park flat-out blamed his management for his lack of longevity, and said he didn't like having to fight every other month, as he felt he couldn't do anything other than train. (But I thought training and fighting are what boxers do?) Worse yet, Park says he was so tired of the grind by the time he got to Oguma that he was looking for a way out of the fight (reminds me of Tyson's antics in Holyfield II and Lewis). He first tried to persuade his corner to throw the towel as the bell rang, and then, when the corner didn't comply, he said he took a seat as soon as Oguma landed the first meaningful shot (to the body). So no, he wasn't going to dominate the decade, to say the least.

But my alternate scenario incorporate both Park's vulnerability to rugged, hard hitters and his lack of dedication to the craft in the long-run, though. So let's say Park's management avoids Espadas-type of fighters for a while once he fights his mandatory in 1980, which is presumptively Magri. Skipping Oguma, Magri would have been Park's 6th successful defense, and he would be free to pick tomato cans for another year until the next mandatory. Park's management also slows down Park's fight schedule as he wanted, and maybe gives him only 4-5 fights the next year. At this point, even if Park loses the next mandatory, wouldn't 10-11 successful defenses put Park at the outskirts of all-time top 10 at flyweight? Canto and Espadas are good wins, and double-figure title defenses constitute impressive longevity at this weight.

I think ultimately our only disagreement is regarding whether Park and Oguma's respective talent, and this may merely be a difference of semantics. Yes, Oguma beat Park three times; but I meant Oguma is not the same caliber of a fighter as Park strictly on native talent, not on accomplishment. And the more talented fighter doesn't always win; further, context also matters. The background gleaned on their first fight from the interview, albeit perhaps a bit self-serving on Park's part (maybe out of a desire to stress that Oguma was never his actual better?), makes me more confident of my opinion.

Lastly, who would Park have fought in 1980-81 who would be favored against him? I think Santos Laciar beats him; I also think, surprisingly enough, Tae-Shik Kim beats him. In fact, there was a lot of demand domestically for a unification fight in 1980 - far more so perhaps than Chang vs. Yuh later. Both obviously lost their titles in 1980, but Kim fought Avelar for Park's old WBC belt in 1981 and got demolished. So perhaps Park could have fought Kim if he kept his WBC belt until 1981?

 

Edit: I don't know why the video is "unavailable." I can watch it fine on Youtube? Anyways, it's a show hosted by Lee Dong-jun, an actor who was also a legendary world taekwondo champion. He often has former boxers as his guest.

 

It was a "consensus" of two, but your addition making it three now makes it a solid "unanimity"!

 

It gets ragged on these days, but when Lee was competing, it was a different sport. Becoming an Olympic sport may have given TKD more exposure and ultimately global popularity, but it's watered down it to what people today call "foot fencing" unfortunately

 

TKD was once a big part of my life, so I get defensive when people dump on it! (Chan-hee was a former TKD practitioner, too - as were many former Korean boxers. He is one of the few former TKD guys who can actually throw hooks though!)

By the way, a bit off-topic, but I forgot to include another gem from this video. I suspect Youtube recommended this video to me not because I was watching a lot of boxing videos, but because I was listening to a lot of Cho yong-pil songs. Now, Cho is indisputably the greatest singer in modern Korean history - a sort of Elvis Presley of South Korea. And the title of that Park interview video was "Brother of the king of pop [Cho]?" So that video caught Youtube algorithms because of Cho, not Park.

The part where Park talked about his relationship with Cho was even more revealing. Park said that Cho (obviously not as famous then) called him up with a request in 1979. Cho thought he needed to be on TV to make it big as a singer in Korea, but getting singing spots was difficult. Thankfully, one of the stations, knowing Cho's relationship with Park, told him they'd let him on if he came together with... Park! Can you imagine? The greatest Korean singer begging a boxer to appear with him on TV to get air time. It's so unfathomable today. No one above age of two who is Korean is ignorant of Cho; no one below age of 40 who is not an avid boxing fan who is Korean knows who Park is. It tells you how popular was boxing in Korea during the late 1970s - and how unpopular it is now...

 

Yes, some of Park's competition was atrocious. And he struggled even against them, including Arrozal whom you mentioned. This is why I was always puzzled as to why Park was matched against Oguma. I suppose it was the combination of the complacent belief that Oguma was done and perhaps the lure of the Japanese yen. But aside from Oguma being a former champion and a perennial contender, he was a lefty - and lefties always gave Park trouble.

I guess our differences on Park and Oguma's "caliber" has to do with semantics then. I was focusing on raw talent; and you more on the complete make-up of a fighter and his accomplishments.

Perhaps my own boxing (and maybe even sports) bias come to play here, and I ought to level about them. I've been accused of favoring Korean and, by extension, sometimes Asian fighters in the past. That was supposedly my "bias." I don't believe so. But I am biased toward raw talent and "peak performance" when I evaluate fighters. I think this approach is more relevant in boxing, as opposed to, say, baseball. This is because boxing is such a violent, taxing sport that frequently see relatively short career or primes. But as I get older, I do see the merits of a longevity-based evaluation, too.

Yes, I can see that Magri poster is a piece of work, just from the comments on that video alone!