I turned to him and said, "I don't ever want this to become of you too!"
Who I was talking to was Snickers and what I was referring to was a slumped over, overly exhausted, pushed to the max, and totally frustrated Black Skinny.
Black Skinny had a fight today and he lost -- he lost to himself.
His opponent was someone whom many questioned why he'd even accept such an unexperienced opponent, someone who clearly "shouldn't even be allowed in the same ring as him [Black Skinny]" as one fan noted.
A bunch of us headed out to Bucheon to watch the fight but many didn't show, saying that it was an expected win so instead of the three hour drive to come watch a one or two round fight, they'd wait for his return in Cheonan.
He returned -- we returned together -- but it wasn't the expected victorious return.
The fight ended in the second round and left us standing with dropped jaws, scratching our heads and wondering what the heck just happened. I stood there with tears in my eyes; I felt so bad for him. I noted that he lost to himself because he did. It wasn't his opponent's skill that ended the fight but Black Skinny's personal fight with juggling a full-time manual job with being a full-time dad and being a full-time boxer. He had about a month and a half to train and lose about 10kg for this particular fight but with all that was on his plate -- daytime job and being a father -- his late nights and early morning starts were painfully exhausting, leaving him running on empty and miserable.
They say boxing in Korea is a "young man's sport" and its true but not in the reason you'd expect it to be. It's a young man's sport because unless you're a student being financially supported by your parents and with only schooling and training on your plate, it's so hard to do boxing professionally as an adult, as a career. I won't get into it again because I've mentioned it before but there just isn't good money in Korea for boxers. Black Skinny is a perfect example of the harsh reality of Korean boxing.
I felt so heartbroken today, having seen my team mate fall off the pedestal he's always sat on in so many of our books.
QUESTION OF THE DAY...
How can we change Korean boxing?
QUOTE OF THE DAY...
If you're not a part of the solution than you're a part of the problem.
-- random advice that has stuck with me
As the story has it, one day I headed to the opposite side of the globe – the Flipside. I arrived in Korea February 16th, 2005 and thought I’d do a year, then leave. I was wrong. I stayed, launched my first company, Flipside Fitness, and then opened Korea's largest boxing club, Hulk's Boxing (now called Hulk's Club).
After 11.5yrs in Korea, I then picked up one day and returned to Toronto, Canada. But then I left again.
Now I live in the Philippines where I am the CEO and head coach of Empowered Clubhouse, the Philippines' first and only boxing clubhouse exclusively just for women. I also am the founder of the Lil' Sistas Project, CEO and designer of Slay Gear and Baa Baa Black Sheep .Ph.
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