On December 18th we see the international debut of WBA female Super Featherweight champion Hyun Mi Choi (17-0-1, 4), who has one of the greatest modern day stories in professional boxing.
 
The talented Korean, who signed with Eddie Hearn and Matchroom earlier this year, would have been hoping to make a big impact on her international debut. Sadly however she is taking on the limited Calista Silgado (19-11-3, 14), in a bout that takes place in Florida on the under-card of Gennady Golovkin's upcoming IBF Middleweight title defense. Not only is Silgado not a high profile opponent, but she's also someone who has taken the bout on extremely short notice as Eddie Hearn and his team have once again dropped the ball on their US shows.
 
What should have been a potential chance to stand out and make a name for herself has seen Choi put in a position where she really can't win. And with DAZN expected to cheerleader her before hand they are leaving a talented fighter in a position to have undue criticism due to the work of her esteemed promoter.
 
As for the fight, rather than extending the rant, it's really hard to see anything but a Choi win.
 
The 30 year old Korean fighter has been a world champion since 2008! She won the WBA female Featherweight title on her debut, beating Chunyan Xu, and made 7 defenses before moving up in weight and becoming a 2-weight champion. At Featherweight she notched a few wins over notable opponents, such as Tenku Tsubasa, Claudia Andrea Lopez, Sandy Tsagouris and Shannon O'Connell. At Super Featherweight Choi has continued to picking up notable wins, with victories over the likes of Fujin Raika, Kimika Miyoshi and Alejandra Gomez. Sadly however she has been horribly inactive, with only 6 fights since the start of 2016, despite being the face of Korean boxing.
 
In the ring Choi is very much a well school boxer. She lacks single punch power, but has good movement, good straight punching, and knows her way around the ring. She keeps a decent work rate, usually, but has slowed in later rounds in bouts. Although very talented she really doesn't like a fight up close and resorts to holding a lot when an opponent is too close for comfort. It can make her bouts frustrating and messy, but when she's in a groove she's fantastic to watch and looks like a stellar boxer. Not a fighter, but a boxer.
 
Silgado is a 32 year old Colombian who looks dangerous on paper, with 14 stoppages in her 19 wins including 4 in the opening round. Sadly however her wins have come over some truly terrible opposition and only 3 of her 19 wins have come against fighters with more wins than losses. Whilst that is a worrying stat in regards to her quality of wins, it should be noted she has lost to pretty much every opponent of any value she has ever faced. That includes Alejandra Marina Oliveras, Yazmin Rivas, Ogledis Suarez, Mayerlin Rivas, Amanda Serrano, Cindy Serrano, Shelly Vincent and Mikaela Mayer. On one hand she has faced good competition, but on the other hand she has lost repeatedly against good competition.
 
In the ring Silgado is very, very limited. She was absolutely dominated in 2018 by Mikaela Mayer who was too quick, too sharp, too long and too tall for Silgado, with Mayer winning every round. Even when Silgado landed her clean her shots bounced off Mayer and it was clear that Silgado didn't belong in there with a world class Super Featherweight. In fact if anything the one thing she impressed with there was her ability to survive the talented American.
 
Given her record, the level of wins she has, the level she loses at and the super short notice she's had for this bout it's hard to see anything but a loss for the Colombian here, who really shouldn't be getting a world title fight, or rather another world title fight. Silgado has come up short in numerous world title fights in the past and she'll come up short again here. She might survive the distance but will not be competitive, and will not act as the introduction to a US audience that Choi deserves.
 
Prediction - Choi UD10

To kick off the new "Female" section of Asian boxing we couldn't have picked a more interesting female "world" title bout.

In one corner we have Japanese veteran Fujin Raika (25-7-1, 10), pictured below, and in the other other corner is unbeaten Korean Hyun-Mi Choi (7-0-1, 2), pictured opposite. Both are former world champions and both are looking for a chance to stamp some authority on the Super Featherweight division as they battle for the WBA "interim" title,

Of the two fighters it's fair to say that Raika, 37, is the more tested fighter having been a professional for more than a decade. Her career, a legendary one, has seen her sharing the ring with a veritable who's who such as Chevelle Hallback, Jelena Mrdjenovich and Ann Saccurato.

Although she is seen as being on the slide Raika does bring real experience a genuine toughness and a natural size advantage having competed regularly at the Lightweight limit in recent years and also having fought as high as Light Welterweight. These qualities will always make her a tough fighter to deal with and if she gets inside she can let her hands fly.

At just 22 years old Choi is by far the younger, fresher fighter. Of course she is trading that off against her relative lack of experience though she has been a WBA Featherweight champion, in fact this will be her 9th straight contest for a world title though it will also be her first bout at the Super Featherweight limit having been a career Featherweight.

Stood at 5'7" Choi will have a height and reach advantage over Raika though it's incredibly important that shes uses it and stays on her toes. She's a lovely straight puncher when she gets in to a rhythm though it can sometimes take a few rounds for her to get her boxing going and this could see her having some problems.

This fight really does seem a bit of a boxer v brawler contest.

The brawler, Raika, in this case is the bigger fighter and a bigger puncher though is several years removed from a notable victory. She has proven, against really good fighters, that she's a handful and has shown a willingness to do what it takes home or away to try and win.

The boxer, Choi, on the other hand is a fighter who is developing from a young girl to a fully grown woman. Her move up in weight is as much down to her frame filling out. She may have been fighting at Featherweight but she always looked big at 126lbs.

As with many fights of this stylistic match up the boxer will need to have the power and speed to keep the brawler from just walking in and unloading. Inside Raika will be able to bang away at the long midsection of Choi and will be a real danger woman.

For Choi this is about what does with her feet just as much as her hands. She'll be quicker with her feet and hands though she'll need to have the awareness to avoid walking herself into the corners where Raika will be able to have a field day. Choi hasn't the power to put Raika away, very few have, though she'll need to get her attention early and make sure Raika respects her. If she can't get the respect of Raika this will be very difficult.

Although Choi will find this bout very difficult, her toughest since her split decision victory over Claudia Andrea Lopez, we imagine she'll just have enough down the stretch to take a close and very competitive decision against the Japanese veteran.