The following picture below may mean absolutely nothing to you reading this, so let me explain what it is and what I've highlighted. This is the a boxing record, listing all the information of a certain boxer -- their fights, their opponents, their wins, and what not. This particular record is that of a current Korean female champion, set to fight at the end of this month. I picked this particular fighter's record because I do not want to comment on the records of today's fighters who fought out in Icheon today, to whom I am very familiar with four of them. Two of them both Snickers and I are very close with, one is that of my former opponent whom I am friends with and the fourth is also a fellow female boxer I have chatted with on numerous occasions. I fully intended to go watch them and cheer them on but upon looking up the records of their opponents I was disappointed. Korea continually brings in visiting foreign boxers to fight their champion fighters, boxers of who are just not up to par with the rankings of their Korean opponents. Moreover, there are various Korean champion fighters that continually refuse to fight outside of Korea, who know full well that KBC will continually support them and keep them in the ranks. Today I watched from home, three of my champion friends and my champion opponent all go against visiting foreign fighters.
As a fellow boxer, I definitely respect the hard work of ALL boxers but KBC is doing my fellow Korean fighters absolutely no justice by miss-matching them with opponents that are just not up to skill with them. I don't personally think it's any reflection on the Korean fighters, KBC making such one-sided fights, instead I think KBC is to blame. Do these Korean fighters train any less because of it? Surely no. They want to box, they are boxers, and in a country where boxing is not financially supported like it is in other countries and where it's female fighters fight more than just their opponents in the ring to do what it is they love, I really wish KBC would raise the moral of it's match-making. I think it's embarrassing what KBC is doing and as much as I love Korea for it's high country pride and fierce female boxers breaking down the norms, I think KBC's miss-matching robs them of their due credit. Give them a fight that makes all their incredible hard training, crazy dieting, and constant boxing-on-the-brain way of thinking worth it.
Moreover, stop bringing in so many visiting foreign boxers, raise the boxing pool here so you have just as many quality boxers as you do quantity. Bringing in a foreign boxer is expensive and fighting in another country means that country offers them two plane tickets (for the boxer and their coach/manager), hotel and meals. It's much cheaper to have in-country fighters fight one another but the attraction of an international fight is the potential of it bringing a bigger crowd. Today they lost several potential crowd members -- Snickers, myself, WOW and some friends who wanted to go watch but were uninterested in watching one-sided fights. I watched the fights from home but I don't think the word fight was appropriate. A friend of mine who watched them attached the word "terrible" to it and I added the word "brutal".
And then there is the fact that there are many Korean fighters who hold champion status but whom refuse to fight outside of Korea. I vouch that if a fighter is really a champion in their country then they should have to fight outside of it, to prove worthy -- to prove that it's not home advantage and being the "picked favourite" that keeps their title theirs.
So, with much ado, here is the record of a Korean female fighter who is fighting at the end of March.
A fighter's record list states the following:
date of the fight
their [the boxer whose boxing record this is] weigh-in (in pounds)
opponent's information:
name, weigh-in, record leading up to that fight, record of their last 6 fights (green being won, red being lost, blue being a draw)
fight information:
location, outcome of the fight (W is win, L is lost, D is draw), how it was decided upon (for example "UD" means unanimous decision, "KO" means knock out), number of rounds the fight was, the judges' scores, referee's name, and if there was a title being fought for
So let me explain all the markings I've made on this particular record...
I've put green squares around the fights that I actually thought were fair matches.
I've put green squares around the fights that I actually thought were fair matches.
The red circles state which opponents were visiting foreign boxers. Note here that after this particular boxer won the IFBA Super Featherweight title she was only set up with foreign boxers and she continued to only fight in Korea. Her opponent on March 23rd, yes you guessed it... a visiting foreign boxer.
I put orange circles around her opponent's record (wins-losses-draws) where I thought it wasn't a fair match-up of skill and yellow circles where I thought it was questionable. Note here that she won the IFBA Featherweight title against a visiting Chinese fighter here in Korea who had a record of only two fights, both of which the Chinese fighter lost.
Side note, props to Jennifer Barber in 2010 for coming to Korea as a visiting boxer, going against the "home advantage" and winning. Note here that she won in Cheonan!!! Yah Cheonan!!! On March 23rd this particular Korean female fighter will be stepping in the ring here in Korea against a visiting foreign boxer who is ranked 5th super featherweight in America. Although this particular Korean boxer is ranked first here in Korea, it's important to note that the pool of boxers she has to contend with here in Korea surely doesn't match her American opponent's pool back in the States so I think it is a great pairing considering. Moreover, the American girl has quite the impressive record of 12 wins, one of which was a knockout, only 2 losses, and 1 draw.
But don't take my word. Just for argument sake, here are the records of two female boxers who fought today for the IFBA Female Mini-Flyweight World Championship. The first record is of the visiting foreign boxer, a Thai boxer who has only fought one fight and the second record is that of Korea's fighter, ranked IFBA Mini Flyweight who went against her today to simply defend her title.
The lack of fights in the visiting foreign boxer's record says it all. This was not a fair match-up and anyone that argues different clearly has taken more punches to the head that us boxers.
Do I think Korea's boxers lack the talent and skill? Absolutely not. I think if anything fighters like Korea's female boxers have a harder time than perhaps fighters who are from North America, where a female fighting is more socially acceptable.
Do I think it's the Korean fighter's fault for the miss-matching? Definitely not. It is the match-maker's responsibility to arrange fair fights just as it is KBC's responsibility to help keep fights fair by accepting and not accepting fights.
Do I think the Korean fighters train any less or have a easier time because of the miss-matching of opponents? No, especially not the female Korean boxers who I as a foreign female boxer living and training here in Korea know all too well how they struggle to be accepted and treated with due respect for our sport.
Is there a lack of boxer pool availability for Korean fighters? Perhaps.
Does this happen in other countries? Probably but I don't know and I don't know what to what extent. I have about 5-6 years experience of it here in Korea so I can only discuss about what I've found to be Korea's situation.
All I know is that there seems to be an ongoing trend with KBC (the Korean Boxing Commission) in that they seem to be doing a lot of pairing up of Korean champion fighters with visiting foreign boxers of lower ranking, as well as their desire to keep their champion fighters fighting here, in their home country. Korea boxing isn't what is used to be and already in the short time that I've been living and fighting here I've seen a shift in boxing moral. Will it change? I don't know but this is what I have to fight with even before I am able to step in the ring to fight. I say, everyone just needs to do their job. Match-makers need to make fair matches, KBC needs re-evaluate their role as a mediator and not that of a controlling bully, and us fighters have to stick to keeping our fights in the ring.
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