North Korea set to stage first professional boxing fights

[Venceremos]

TOKYO, May 20 (Reuters) - North Korea is set to stage professional fights for the first time next month.

The secretive communist state will hold title bouts involving its two International Female Boxers Association (IFBA) champions in Pyongyang on June 28, South Korean Boxing Council president Park Sang-kwon told reporters on Friday.

IFBA bantamweight Kim Kwang-ok and super-flyweight Ryu Myong-ok may defend their titles against American challengers, added Park. He said the deal to stage the fights was agreed during his recent trip to North Korea.

"The matches will be held at a gymnasium in Pyongyang," said Park. "An agreement was reached to have amateur and professional boxing in North Korea...for the first time since the division of the nation (in 1953)."

[Chopping Right]

Perhaps then there is also hope for North Korea's only remaining communist buddy Cuba, now that is where I would one day like to see professional boxing again. I wonder if we may see that one day soon, Castro can't go on forever and maybe Cuba will be induced back in from the Cold War when he eventually goes. Even with the introduction of pro boxing back to the island the amateur framework that has existed there for the past 40 years would ensure a plentiful supply of great prospects for years afterwards, similar to the quality of the latest amateurs from the old Soviet countries even though the USSR broke up a long time ago now. Amazing really how such a tiny country as Cuba can produce such talent, but the same is true of nearby Puerto Rico also.

[Venceremos]

Hello,

The North Korean process is a bite complex. The next article explains a little this story.

North Korean Pro Ring Boxers to Fight for World Titles
The DPRK plans to send the country's top-class professional boxers to international arenas to get world titles this year, a high-ranking DPRK athletic official said.

The country, which has had amateur gold medallists in the Olympic Games and international championships, currently has more than 300 ring pros. "They are going to advance into the world actively and some of them are ready to compete in international matches, said Jang Ung, secretary of the DPRK Olympic Committee.

In the DPRK, which has been a member of the World Boxing Council (WBC) since 1995, three pro fighters already made their debuts in Japanese rings in 1996. They were Choe Chol Su, a bantam weight; Kim Hyok, a welter-weight and Choe Pyong Guik, a junior-flyweight. Choe Chol Su was the only Asian gold winner in the '92 Barcelona Olympics in the fly-weight class (amateur-class) in Spain. Choe had achieved the record of 200 victories and ten defeats in his amateur boxer days in domestic and international matches.

In an interview, Mr. Jang, who is concurrently a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said that his country formed the Professional Boxing Association of Korea (PBAK) on July 7, 1992 and the first national championship series was held in December of the same year. Since then, dozens of national contests have been held in a tournament style as the number of pro-boxing fans has been growing rapidly. He accompanied DPRK athletes and officials who participated in the Nagano Winter Olympic Games in Japan.

In September 1997, the DPRK became a member of the WBA (World Boxing Association) and has applying for the membership in the IBF (International Boxing Federation), the WBO (World Boxing Organization) and the OPBF (Ocean Pacific Boxing Federation).

[locoxelbox]

So there has been pro boxing in North Korea for a while???? Those bouts don't appear on Boxrec, right?
Anyone knows what happened to Gwang Sik Li, a terrific fighter who won bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics. He beat Sergio Reyes, USA and upset world champion Serafim Todorov, BUL and then lost in another hard battle vs Wayne McCullough, IRL in the semis. I believe he turned pro in Japan but I can't find his record.

[Chopping Right]

.......I believe he turned pro in Japan but I can't find his record.

Sometimes the results returned from BoxRec name searching are strange to say the least. Somebody should definitely take a look into why that is.

[aldo]

While the sport follows handled by the people of the generation of Teófilo Stevenson, in Cuba there will be no professional sport

[Chopping Right]

While the sport follows handled by the people of the generation of Teófilo Stevenson, in Cuba there will be no professional sport

I'm not so sure. History has shown us that Communist governments eventually fail and that their successors tend to rapidly move towards more "western" thinking. Witness the rise of the Klitschko brothers, had they been born 10 years earlier they would have been career amateurs, now they are national heroes in the Ukraine, only 10 or so years after the disintegration of the old Soviet Union.

[aldo]

I was in Havana in 2003 and my political family is cuban and they send to things of newspaper Granma and other resemblances to me. In one of them, it will do 2 months, there was all a declaration, with public celebrations included, where the 43 years without professional sports are celebrated. In addition, it is known that Stevenson and the sportsmen of their generation, come debating and being against public and privately to the reestablishment of the professional sport. In years, who knows but, so far, one does not see that they can be restored

[Chopping Right]

I am sure you are right that there will be no professional sport in Havana any time soon. But Castro cannot live forever and when he goes I am sure the nearby United States will be keen to "make friends" with whoever comes to power. Despite the decline in communism throughout the world the USA is always keen to undermine such governments and induce political change.