Someone's assessment of Yuh Myung Woo: Do you agree?

Along with Jung-Koo Chang & Soo-Hwan Hong, Yuh is generally considered one of the 3 best Korean boxers ever by the general Korean boxing public (this is strictly from various online polls conducted in Korea), though the opinion of the Korean experts is more divided, for the reasons below. For instance, Mr. Oh, one of the editors at Crosscounter (the only major Korean boxing magazine) does not consider Yuh a top 5 Korean boxer ever nor a top 5 junior flyweight ever, which is somewhat mirrored by my own views.

First, his record itself, which can be easily obtained from any perusal of sites like Boxrec. Yuh lost 1 fight in 39 fights, to Ioka, a loss which he later avenged in a rather one-sided fashion. He holds the record for most title defenses by any junior flyweight or Korean titlist (both records were once held by Jung-Koo Chang). That's obviously a very solid record.

However, upon closer inspection, his record is less sterling. It is generally acknowledged that he faced weaker competition than other junior flyweight titlists who were somewhat contemporary with him: Chang, Chiquita Gonzalez & Michael Carbajal. In addition, perhaps more damning, many of his "wins" were controversial, which is one of the reasons why he doesn't get too much credit from me. As one poster said before, if you are going to fight garbage, you should at least clean them out. In particular, 4 fights stand out. His title-winning performance v. Joey Olivio is one where Yuh himself admitted that he lost & got the decision only because it was fought in Korea. (Unlike Chang or Hong, Yuh was a humble man at least & part of the reason why he is so well-liked in Korea.) Other controversial decisions include the 2 matches with Jose de Jesus & the 1st match with Leo Gamez. While Olivio, de Jesus & Gamez were not exactly bums, they were not the best junior flyweights of the era. And what hurts Yuh's legacy even more was his loss to Hiroki Ioka, who was at best a mediocre junior flyweight. While it is true that Yuh was past his prime for the Ioka fight, I think the fact that Yuh beat him rather easily in the return match mitigates the force of that excuse.

In terms of style, he was a very technically sound pressure fighter. Indeed he is knicknamed "so-na-gi," which means "downpour" in Korea because of his volume punching. I don't think they kept punchstats in his fights, but if they did, I am sure he would have broken every punchstat records.

But alas, his punches had very little in them. Mr. Oh says that Yuh stuck his hands out, rather than actually throwing punches. In fact, in terms of natural ability, Yuh had very little, which is why Korean experts like Mr. Oh doesn't rate him high & believe that he would have lost to most junior flyweight greats. Yuh had very slow feet, almost comparable to the hard punching-German Torres & his handspeed was mediocre, which was masked by the fact that he threw so many punches & always in combination. His defense was above average because he was technically so sound, but against the craftier & quick-handed opponents, he didn't have quite the natural reflexes to evade getting hit regularly. The only natural equipment that Yuh had that stands out was his chin. Yuh was never floored in his career & may have had the best chin in the division's history, though I should point out that other than de Jesus, he never fought any big hitters. Also, because of his incessant work in the gym, Yuh was always superbly conditioned & could fight all-day. In fact, in terms of stamina, you could put him up there anyone in boxing history.

Yuh in other words is a classic case of a guy who went as far as his limited talents would allow with unbelievable hard work. In fact, there are stories about Yuh's early days where he would stay late not only to train but always volunteer to clean the gym, etc., to attract the eyes of the trainers. Perhaps there is something said to be about that; however, personally, my own biases are that I am more impressed by naturally gifted, brilliant talents over gym rats.

How would he have done against all-time junior flyweight greats? Not well, in my opinion, perhaps the real reason (Yuh's own remonstrations to the contrary) he never fought any of them. A unification match with Chang would have been the greatest domestic fight in history. But it is well-known that Yuh was Chang's sparring partner when he was a world contender & was soundly beaten every time they met. I do not envy his chances v. Zapata either. Yuh was probably too slow to catch up with a slickster like Zapata; in fact, if he couldn't catch up to Olivio, how could he catch up to Zapata? The same goes for Chiquita Gonzalez, assuming that Chiquita is at his best & boxes Yuh responsibly. The junior flyweight that Yuh would have perhaps the best chance to beat is Carbajal, who is ironically the junior flyweight great that Yuh almost ended up meeting. It is possible that Yuh might have the chin to absorb Carbajal's power & out-work him to a decision. But I would still be skeptical. Certainly, the Yuh that fought Ioka would be no match for Carbajal, which is something that his fans would admit. But the Yuh of the Gamez return match would have a better shot, though I think I would still favor Carbajal.

What is my overall assessment? A very hard-working champion but not a brilliantly gifted one. I rate him #5 junior flyweight of all-time, behind (in order) Chang, Zapata, Gonzalez & Carbajal. And to be honest, the only reason I rate him above Gushiken is because of the controversy surrounding Gushiken that he poisoned his opponents, which seems to have been proven.

 

Thats what the man said dude. You never heard of it?

 

Just something I found on the Internet. Well written, but I wouldn't put a great deal of stock in the Gushiken accusations. If only because the whole article is riddled with personal bias, and I agree with you about the harshness of his assessment of Yuh. Yuh placed his shots very well at times, and although he'd often flick the odd shot out there to set up hard ones to the body, he was a lot more talented than he seems to give him credit for. A hard worker indeed, but only a smart fighter who knows the sport well has the discipline to keep going to the body, and can keep their composure under heavy artillery. No fighter makes 17 title defenses unless they are more than just a gym rat.

Side note, if the accusations were proven like he said they were, we'd all surely know about it by now.