North Korean defector Choi Hyun Mi finds pro boxing success in South Korea

As a toddler in an authoritarian, socialist nation, Choi Hyunmi’s athletic expertise was noticed early and her progress accelerated by a coach eager to impress the chief of North Korea.

After packing the gloves away when her household defected to the South, it was boxing that helped her two years later after she confronted discrimination.

Almost twenty years after fleeing North Korea as a 13-year-old woman, Choi is South Korea’s solely boxing world champion.

She harbors ambitions to unify her tremendous featherweight division and to maneuver up a weight to problem Irish legend Katie Taylor, who’s No. 1 within the ladies’s pound-for-pound rankings.

Choi’s huge push acquired off to a rocky begin, when her deliberate unification bout with WBC title-holder Terri Harper in Could was cancelled due to the British boxer’s hand damage.

What the undefeated WBA champion has already achieved makes her an amazing ambassador for North Korean defectors in South Korea.

Choi started boxing at 11 when she lived in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.

She stated a faculty coach seen her athletic potential and instructed her mother and father that she might turn into a boxer who “can delight Normal Kim Jong Il,” the late father of present chief Kim Jong Un.

She later joined an elite youth boxing program making ready for future Olympics, however in late 2003, her household left North Korea as a result of her father Choi Yeong-chun, who had labored abroad as a state-run buying and selling firm worker, wished a special life for his kids.

They moved to South Korea by way of Vietnam, solely to face poverty and discrimination like many different defectors whose {qualifications} in North Korea largely aren’t acknowledged within the South.

Choi went again to boxing after a classmate insulted her North Korea background following an unintentional collision at college. “She cursed me, telling me ‘It’s best to have stayed in North Korea.

She turned a member of South Korea’s nationwide crew in 2006 earlier than turning professional and clinching the World Boxing Affiliation’s vacant featherweight crown in 2008.

After defending the title seven occasions, Choi jumped up a weight division and added the WBA tremendous featherweight title to her assortment in 2014. She’s defended that title eight occasions.

However the sport’s declining recognition in South Korea left Choi with a scarcity of sponsorships, to the purpose the place she even thought of surrendering her title.

Brokers from the USA, Japan and Germany have made approaches about Choi being naturalized in these international locations.

However the 30-year-old boxer stated she’s rejected the provides for 2 causes: worries about one other robust resettlement, and the immense satisfaction that she’s had representing South Korea.

Now with an American boxing company, Choi trains largely in the USA, the place she thinks she might turn into “a good larger boxer.”

Choi is not positive when her match with Harper might be rearranged, however she stated inside three to 5 years she goals to mix the WBA title with the three different main belts _ WBC, IBF and WBO _ in her division.

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