Six Degrees of Separation... Ki Soo Kim to Gennady Golovkin

10/6/2020

We've all heard of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, and we've decided to put our spin on things with "Six degrees of separation" looking to connect Asian fighters you may never have assumed were connected! Today we connect the legendary Ki Soo Kim to Gennady Golovkin.

Just as ground rules, we're not doing the more basic "A beat B who beat C who beat D" type of thing, but instead we want to link fighters in different ways. As a result we will limit A fought B connections, and try to get more varied connections together, as you'll see here! We also know there are often shorter routes to connect fighters, but that's not always the most interesting way to connect them.

1-Korean great Ki Soo Kim was the first professional fighter from Korea to win a world title, holding the WBC and WBA Middleweight titles from June 1966 to May 1968, defending the belts twice. As well as holding his Middleweight titles he also held the OPBF Middleweight title, which he recorded 5 times. Another fighter who defended that OPBF title 5 times was Akio Shibata, who did so over 40 years after Kim's reign.

2-Whilst Akio Shibata isn't too well known in the West, where he's probably best known for being the debut opponent of Ryota Murata. On the day Shibata debuted, August 29th 2003, former world champion Sornpichai Kratingdaenggym scored his 30th, and final, career win, defeating Ricky Gozo with a 6 round win. In his only follow up bouts Sornpichai lost to Magbau Pathy and Jun Toriumi.

3-Whilst Sornpichai Kratingdaenggym was pretty much shot to pieces by 2003 he had made his name a few years earlier when he stopped Leo Gamez to become the WBA Flyweight champion. As a champion Sornpichai managed just a single successful defense, that was the same as Korean champion Tae Shik Kim back in 1980.

4-Korean fighter Taek Shik Kim might not have had a long reign as the WBA Flyweight champion but those who watched his debut were probably never expecting him to win a world title. That was because he got stopped on his debut, back in 1977, before rebuilding to take the WBA Flyweight title from Luis Ibarra. His actual result on debut was a KO3 loss to Kee Bong Koh. Another future world champion who was stopped in 3 rounds on debut was Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, who was stopped in 3 rounds by Akira Yaegashi on his debut.

5-Hard hitting Thai Srisaket Sor Rungvisai may not have started his career too well, going 1-3-1, but turned it around amazingly to become a 2-time WBC Super Flyweight champion. The second of those reigns came when Srisaket shocked the boxing world and beat the previously unbeaten Roman Gonzalez, originally taking a decision over the Nicaraguan great before stopping him in a rematch.

6-During some of his later career bouts Roman Gonzalez was just headlining "Super Fly" cards. Prior to that he was essentially introduced to an American audience by being partnered up with Kazakh Middleweight star Gennady Golovkin.

(Photo - si.com)

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Six Degrees of Separation... Takanori Hatakeyama to Ki Soo Kim

9/29/2020

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We've all heard of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, and we've decided to put our spin on things with "Six degrees of separation" looking to connect Asian fighters you may never have assumed were connected! Today we connect former 2-weight world Takanori Hatakeyama to Korean legend Ki Soo Kim!

Just as ground rules, we're not doing the more basic "A beat B who beat C who beat D" type of thing, but instead we want to link fighters in different ways. As a result we will limit A fought B connections, and try to get more varied connections together, as you'll see here! We also know there are often shorter routes to connect fighters, but that's not always the most interesting way to connect them.

1-Japanese warrior Takanori Hatakeyama was one of the Japanese stars of the 1990's and early 2000's. He's best known for winning both the WBA Super Featherweight and Lightweight titles. Sadly for Hatakeyama both of his reigns at world level were short, with his first reign lasting less than a year. His first reign saw him defending his title once, with a draw against Mexican fighter Saul Duran.

2-Although Saul Duran never won a world title during his 62 fight career, he did fight a relative who's who of who. Just going through a few names of Duran's opponents is staggering and gives us not only Hatakeyama but also Noree Jockygym, Stevie Johnson, Antonio Pitalua, Jose Luis Castillo, Hector Camacho, Demetrius Andrade and Andy Lee.

3-Irish fighter Andy Lee was tipped for big things when he turned professional. Whilst he didn't manage to be a long term champion he did win the WBO Middleweight title, and held it for a little over 2 years. Prior to turning professional he had been a stand out amateur competing at the highest level. At the 2003 AIBA World championships he was beaten by Gennady Golovkin, who ended up taking the gold medal.

4-As a professional Gennady Golovkin has had a very impressive career which included a long reign as the WBA Middleweight champion. Included in those wins was a 3rd round TKO win over Makoto Fuchigami in May 2012.

5-Prior to losing to Gennady Golokvin we had seen Japanese Middleweight Makoto Fuchigami unify the Japanese and OPBF Middleweight titles with a brilliant and thrilling win over Koji Sato, in a real closet classic. Another man who won both OPBF and Japanese Middleweight titles was Hachiro Tatsumi, a fighter who was active in the 1940's, 50's and 60's. In fact Tatsumi was the first OPBF, then kn own as OBF, Middleweight champion.

6-Although long forgotten by the boxing world Hachiro Tatsumi was a massively important fighter in the mid 1900's for the Japanese scene. He fought over 100 times during a long and fruitful career that saw him winning the OPBF Middleweight title 3 times, the Japanese Middleweight title 3 times and the Japanese Welterweight title twice. Another multi-time OPBF Middleweight champion was Ki Soo Kim, who held the title twice in the 1960's, and actually defended it whilst a Light Middleweight world champion!

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Six Degrees Daigo Higa to Ki Soo Kim

1/7/2020

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We've all heard of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, and we've decided to put our spin on things with "Six degrees of separation" looking to connect Asian fighters you may never have assumed were connected! Today we connect Daigo Higa and...Ki Soo Kim.

1-Former Japanese world champion Daigo Higa, who returns to the ring in February to finally restart his career after being suspended by the JBC, is promoted by former Light Flyweight king Yoko Gushiken, who has guided Higa through his career so far, from his debut to his world title triumph to his title loss in 2018.

2-Back in the 1970's and 1980's Yoko Gushiken ran 13 defenses of the WBA Light Flyweight title, a Japanese male record that still stands too this day.The 11th of those defenses was a controversial one over Yong Hyun Kim, whilst we won't into the controversy here, as we plan to do a full article on the Poison Orange Incident in the future, the defense was one of the final ones of Gushiken's career and he would lose the belt the following year.

3-On September 26th 1981 Yong Hyun Kim lost in an OPBF Light Flyweight title fight to Siony Carupo. On that very same show Thailand's Satanfa Pratip also lost in an OPBF title fight, up at Welterweight. The Thai was stopped in 5 rounds by Chung Jae Hwang.

4-Although Satanfa Pratip, who went 3-3 as a professional, isn't a big name, he did fight a notable trio of Thai fighters. One of those was Chung Jae Hwang, as mentioned, another Jun Suk Hwang and the the third was future world champion In Chul Baek.

5-Whilst In Chul Baek is well known internationally for reaching the pinnacle of the sport, and winning the WBA Super Middleweight title late in his career, his first career title was the OPBF Light Middleweight title, which he won back in 1981, when he stopped Sang Ho Lee. Another man who held that very same OPBF title was Sae Chul Kang, in fact Kang was the first man to hold that title.

6-On October 1st 1961, November 1st 1961 and December 14th 1963 Sae Chul Kang battled with, and lost to, Ki Soo Kim. The first of those bouts was actually Kim's professional debut, following his outstanding amateur career.

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10 facts you probably didn't know about...Ki Soo Kim

12/1/2019

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In 1966 Ki Soo Kim became the first South Korean boxer to win a professional world title, defeating Nino Benvenuti for the Light Middleweight title. He would reign as the champion for almost 2 years, before losing in Italy to Sandro Mazzinghi having notched 2 defenses. His reign, although a very significant one for South Korea, is often forgotten by Western fans.

Sadly, though as with many fighters from the 60's, watching footage of Kim isn't easy, but there is a lot of information that is forgotten about one of Asia's most important fighters. With that in mind let us bring you 10 facts you probably didn't know about...Ki Soo Kim.

1-Born in 1939 Kim was a youngster when Korea was split, following years under Japanese rule. Interestingly, despite being the first South Korean world champion, he was born South Hamgyong Province, which would later be part of North Korea, when the country was split in 1945. Giving him the unique claim, at least on paper, of being the first fighter from North Korea to win a world title. Sadly though he was a refugee and this move left him and his family in poverty.

2-Ki Soo Kim's father, who was a notable sumo wrestler, died just days before Kim was born.

3-Kim was a natural athlete as a youngster, being a very capable volleyball player, soccer player and wrestler. As a wrestler he wrestled with Kim Il, who went on to be better known as Kintaro Oki. Oki would later go on to have a legendary professional wrestling career and share the ring with icons like Antonio Inoki and Giant Baba.

4-In 1958 Kim won gold at the Tokyo Asian Games. He was fighting in the 67KG division and beat Souren Pirjanian, from Iran, in the gold medal bout.

5-Despite being well known for his professional win over Nino Benvenuti for the Light Middleweight world title Kim had actually faced the Italian great several years earlier. In fact Benvenuti had beaten Kim in the 1960 Olympics, before going on to win the gold medal.

6-After his world title win there was a movie released called ‘내 주먹을 사라’ (roughly translates as "Buy my Fist") which featured Kim, who would go on to be in other movies. "Buy my Fist" would be a boxing movie that focus on how a death of a fighter affects the fighter who caused the death.

7-Kim's professional debut saw him take a 10 round decision over Sae Chul Kang, in fact Kim's first 2 wins were over Kang. What makes this note worthy is that Kang was the Oriental (OBF, which has now become the OPBF) Champion at Light Middleweight

8-Between Kim's world title bouts, at Light Middleweight, he defended the OBF Middleweight title. From his world title win in June 1966 to his title loss in May 1968 he defended the world title at Light Middleweight twice and the OBF title, also twice. During his entire career Kim went 6-1 in OBF title bouts and was a 2-time OBF champion, losing the belt in 1968 to Hisao Minami and reclaiming it just a few months later.

9-Following Kim's boxing career he went on to become a successful business man, and notable ran a tea house in Myeong-dong.

10-Kim passed away after a battle with Liver Cancer in 1997. He was survived by his wife, 2 sons and 2 daughters.

Extra Fact - Although unconfirmed Kim reportedly had an 87-1 amateur record, meaning his loss to Benvenuti at the Rome Olympics was his only defeat in the unpaid ranks.

Extra fact 2 - Korean sources state that it cost $55,000 to bring Benvenuti to Korea in 1966, accounting for inflation that's £426,261 in today's money.

Extra fact 3 - In 1965 he met American trainer Bobby Richards, who would later go on to be his trainer

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Six Degrees of Separation... Ki Soo Kim to Gennady Golovkin

Six Degrees of Separation... Takanori Hatakeyama to Ki Soo Kim

Six Degrees Daigo Higa to Ki Soo Kim

10 facts you probably didn't know about...Ki Soo Kim

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