Bruce Yi
Junior Member
Joined: 24 Dec 2007
Posts: 12
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 Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 9:14 pm Post subject: PLEASE PRAY FOR CHOI ... PLEASE READ |
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being an athlete, fan, and of Korean descent, this was really sad for me to hear ...
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<b>Choi in Coma after Victory</b>
By Brett Conway (Dec 26, 2007)
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In the closing seconds of a Christmas day bout, Yo Sam Choi was hit with a right hand that dropped him to the canvas. He was carried out of the ring on a stretcher and taken to a hospital. There, doctors found he was suffering from a cerebral hemorrhage. After a two hour operation at Soon Cheon Hyang Dae Hospital in Seoul, Choi remains in a coma, and doctors say the next two days are crucial.
A former junior flyweight champion, Choi won the unanimous decision in Kwangjin Gu Hall, Seoul, South Korea against Heri Amol. With this victory, Choi was supposed to be given a fight in Las Vegas against Omar Narvaez for the WBO title. But that bout is finished given how Tuesday?s fight ended. That fight doesn?t matter at all.
Before the extent of Choi?s injuries were known, Max Boxing spoke briefly to Choi?s manager.
?We really don?t know if he will fight again,? Choi?s manager Kyoung Ho Choi told Max Boxing. ?It all depends on what the hospital says.?
Asked what caused Choi to collapse so suddenly in a fight he was dominating, Choi?s manager insisted Choi had just given his all in the fight.
?He is okay,? Choi said. ?He is just exhausted. He is okay.?
But later the news turned dire. Yo Sam Choi had bleeding on the brain in a bout that he was dominating but that was interrupted by a number of head clashes between the two fighters.
Against Indonesia?s Heri Amol (22-7 with 7 KOs), Choi (32-5 with 19 KOs) was making the first defense of his WBO Intercontinental flyweight title. Winning every round of the fight except for the twelfth, Choi showed good boxing skills and a willingness to engage in exchanges. He, however, often was lax in his defense and exposed himself to punches from an overmatched opponent who usually fights as a junior flyweight.
In the early rounds, Choi concentrated on body shots, ripping hooks that hurt his opponent. Choi also threw right uppercuts from the outside that were effective. He moved well, often controlling the fight with one, two, three, and four jabs at a time.
In the middle rounds, their heads started banging together more than once as Choi would charge in and Amol would duck low. No points were taken away, but the referee would warn the fighters for such tactics. Choi was still winning these rounds, but Amol was beginning to adjust to the champion style. He would counter Choi?s hooks to the body with wild right hands. He would counter Choi?s uppercuts from the outside with left hooks. These punches didn?t hurt Choi, but they give Amol hope that he might survive the fight.
In the late rounds, Choi tried to close the show, dumping Amol twice in wet corners. Although ruled slips, these falls suggested Amol?s legs were weakening from Choi?s body assault. Choi bulled Amol around the ring, using his shoulders and his head to push and gain distance. But sometimes Choi himself got the worse of the head clashes, grimacing in pain as he jumped away from the Amol. As the ninth became the tenth and the eleventh, the question wasn?t who would win but would Amol survive. Choi started these late rounds going after the challenger and by the time the bell rang, it was clear that if Choi had four minutes to work with instead of three, he would have finished the challenger in those rounds.
In the twelfth, the pace slowed a bit. With about 10 seconds remaining, Choi backed to his own corner and gestured with his right glove to his right brow and then Amol threw a looping right hand that landed on the side of Choi?s cheek, dumping the champion to the canvas ? only seconds remained. He rose, was ruled fit to continue, stayed on his feet until the bell rang, and then collapsed to the canvas after his opponent lifted him in the air. If the fight had lasted ten seconds longer, Choi probably would?ve been knocked out. The cards were read in Choi?s favor, but Choi lay on the canvas apparently unconscious, a pen light shining in his eyes. A stretcher was brought in, and he was carried out of the ring.
Although the arena was prepared with an emergency vehicle and Soon Cheon Hyang Dae Hospital was the hospital the Korean Boxing Commission used for emergencies, a traffic jam on the way to the hospital caused a ten-minute delay before Choi received medical treatment.
Choi, 35 years old, has been fighting professionally since 1993. He won the WBC lightweight title in 1999 and defended it three times before being knocked out by Jorge Arce in 2002. Going into Tuesday?s fight, Choi was the number four ranked WBO flyweight and the number fourteen WBC junior flyweight.
This is an unfortunate event for Korean boxing and for boxing in general. It comes close on the heels of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of Duk Koo Kim.
I ask all boxing fans to send their prayers to Yo Sam Choi. |
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