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July 30th 2016-Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA Min Wook Kim (15-1, 11) vs Louis Cruz (11-1, 5) This past weekend Korean fighter Min Wook Kim [김민욱] took to the ring in the US, in front of a handful of fight fans. Although there was few fans in attendance Kim did impress as he took on the once beaten Louis Cruz.
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July 18th 2015- Don Haskins Convention Center, El Paso, Texas, USA Min Wook Kim (12-1, 9) Vs Luis Alberto Pelayo (11-5, 7) This past weekend saw South Korean slugger Min Wook Kim make his US debut as he took on Luis Alberto Pelayo. That fight was, thankfully, caught on an amateur recording from ringside and can be seen here. (Footage courtesy of David Finger) March 21st 2015-Mexicali, Mexico Min Wook Kim (11-1, 8) Vs Lizandro De los Santos (22-12, 9) This past weekend we witnessed the long awaited return to action of Min Wook Kim, a talented Korean who had held the OPBF Light Welterweight title back in 2012-2013. Sadly following his OPBF title reign Kim's career went on an hiatus and it was more than 18 months before he returned to the ring following his victory Valentine Hosokawa. On his return he took on Mexico's Lizandro De los Santos. An over-matched but gutsy Mexican. (Video courtesy of STS Boxing) South Korean fighter Min Wook Kim is the most recent Korean to hold an OPBF title. Kim was the OPBF Light Welterweight champion for over a year and managed to make 4 defences of his title between winning it, via a 2nd round TKO of Romeo Jakosalem in May 2012 and scoring a an 11th round TKO over Japan's Valentine Hosokawa in August 2013. Min Wook Kim's first defence of the title saw him facing fellow Korean Pan Soo Kim just weeks after he actually won the title and, as with his title winning effort, Min Wook Kim scored a 2nd round TKO victory to retain his title. Prior to the fight Pan Soo Kim had held the South Korean national title and was a 2-time OPBF challenger having fallen short against Motoki Sasaki and Romeo Jakosalem. In neither of those fights had he been dominated like he was here. Interestingly our video is one of two very different ones of this bout. Ours is a "fan cam" style video, there was also a televised video courtesy of the official Korean broadcaster of the bout. If you'd like to watch that bout it's available here courtesy of sweetboxing1, unfortunately the sound on that video isn't great though we're unsure if that was a broadcast issue or an issue with the capturing of the video. We've been happy to admit that we are huge fans of South Korean Min Wook Kim who has shown a lot of the tools needed to be a star in the world of professional boxing. In his debut he showed ambition fighting Taek Min Kim a former South Korean national champion, in his OPBF title winning effort against Romeo Jakosalem he showed spiteful power, in his second defence of the OPBF title against Dan Nazareno Jr he showed his ability to fight through adversity and in his 3rd defence, against Shinya Iwabuchi, he showed the ability to go 12 rounds and perform highly on foreign soil. Unfortunately Kim has been a bit inactive in recent months though he was last seen in the ring defending the OPBF Light Welterweight title against Japan's Valentine Hosokawa in what was another thrilling bout involving "The Sniper". The bout saw both men eating clean shots, it saw the defence of both picked apart but more importantly it saw some fantastic action which swung from one side to the other. Both men were forced to show their chin, their toughness and their heart. What is really notable about this fight is the drawing power of Kim who not only had the bout shown on KBSN Sports but also seemed to be able to pack out the Junggu Hall and have the crowd chanting his name and going wild as he proved Korea's interest in boxing wasn't dead it just needed something special to awaken it. It seems that when you have a talented and TV friendly fighter like Kim a crowd will will be interested in what they do. Hopefully this will continue when Kim returns to the ring and will also help to make Ja Ik Goo a star as he too has an all action style. (Video courtesy of J.M. Kim) Sometimes the best way to beat fire is with fire and that seemed to be the mentality of Filipino Dan Nazareno Jr when he challenged OPBF Light Welterweight champion Min Wook Kim back in November 2012. Kim had beaten Nazareno's Filipino compatriot Romeo Jakosalem for the title just 6 months earlier and was making his second defence of the belt. Nazareno didn't seem to care about the reputation of the South Korean slugger and instead went on the offensive from the opening seconds scoring a knockdown of Kim after just 13 seconds. Having had success from the off Nazareno tried to force an opening stoppage. Unfortunately for the Filipino he was unable to finish the job in the opening round. That however didn't deter him and in the opening seconds of round 2 he again stunned Kim with a heavy handed assault that forced the champion on to eat a considerable amount of leather. Sadly for Nazareno he fell foul of the old adage regarding a fighter "shooting their wad" and quickly the bout turned on it's head as Kim battered an exhausted looking Nazareno until the referee stopped the bout. In regards to action this was great stuff and shows exactly why we love Min Wook Kim though it also shows why Nazareno is such a feared fighter and why he too needs to be regarded as one of the most exciting but yet unheralded Filipinos in boxing. (Video courtesy of tlsdflskfjle) When we talk about the best active South Korean fighter it's hard to make a strong case for anyone but Light Welterweight contender Min Wook Kim. Kim is not only the best Korean fighter out there but is also the last to have won an OPBF title, a title he won back in May 2012 when he scored a stunning stoppage over then then champion and world ranked Romeo Jakosalem of the Philippines. Going in to the bout Kim was a hotly tipped but inexperienced Korean prospect he'd fought just 7 times as a professional and was top 10 ranked by the OPBF. Jakosalem however was top 20 ranked by the WBC, a veteran of more than 20 bouts and the reigning OPBF champion, having beaten Min Wook Kim's compatriot, and future opponent, Pan-Soo Kim for the title. For many this was the bout where Kim became a fighter to keep an eye on for others it was a case of Jakosalem being a weak OPBF champion. As it's turned our we dare say the Filipino is better than he looked here but Kim is something a bit special. (Video courtesy of ssssseeeexxx) One of our favourite active South Korean fighters is Min Wook Kim, the former OPBF Light Welterweight champion who has all the makings of a future world title challenger. Kim has been on the fast track since he debuted against former South Korean champion Taek Min Kim. In fact in his first 4 bouts he faced 2 former national champions and bouts 5 and 6 he faced international opponents. What we have here is his 6th professional bout, a contest that saw him fighting Japan's Junya Nakada. Nakada had been stopped twice before though showed grit to push Kim as far as he did before a somewhat poor stoppage by the referee. Although the stoppage was poor it seemed that Kim was going to begin going through the gears in the final round a half and could well have given Nakada a bit of a pasting had the fight continued. (Video courtesy of tlsdflskfjle) When a fighter struggles in their early bouts fight fans can be very quick to write a fighter off. Sadly doing so tends to ignore why they struggled and if you looked at Min Wook Kim's record after 4 bouts you'd understand what we mean. On debut Kim lost to the experienced Taek Min Kim a former national champion at Super Featherweight. In Min Wook Kim's fourth bout he struggled again, taking a split decision against Yang Soo Sung another former national champion. Sung, who had apparently been inactive for 8 years going into this bout, was a teak tough fighter who went 10 rounds with the excellent In Jin Chi and 10 with one time world title challenger Kengo Nagashima. He had had 19 previous fights, to Kim's 3, and had never been an opponent that was easy to beat or get rid of. At the time of the bout Kim was still a raw and green professional who was being pushed in to 8 rounders due to his clear ability. As a result of the experience and toughness of Sung we saw Kim really struggle though it helped no end with his development and of course he's progressed so much since then and is now a world ranked fighter and a former OPBF champion. Sung however seems to have retired from boxing for good. Anyone who has followed this site for a while will know that we are huge fans of Min Wook Kim, the Korean warrior known as "The Sniper". Kim is one of the few shining lights in Korean boxing, along with Ja Ik Goo, and is, at the time of writing, the last Korean man to hold an OPBF title. Considering what he has done it may be surprising to know that Kim lost his debut, being stopped by fellow Korean Taek Min Kim in a bout that Min Wook Kim simply wasn't ready for. It was over-aggressive match making though it was match making made in the belief that his team knew they had a special talent on their hands. Just over 2 months after Kim's debut loss he returned to the ring to fight fellow novice Tae Kyung Um. Um, just like Kim, was fighting in his second professional bout following a stoppage loss on debut. Although the men had identical records their was a gulf in terms of the relative skills of the two men with Kim being several levels above Um who failed to last a round with the talented and very promising Kim. Interestingly whilst Kim has become a beacon of sorts for Korean boxing Um has vanished from the boxing world. His record stands at 0-4-2 and he hasn't fought in over 30 months suggesting that he's now done with professional boxing. For Kim however the future is bright with rumours of him appearing on an upcoming Top Rank card in Singapore. |
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