Joonie73
12-13-2003, 07:10 AM
Since Sung-Kil Moon (along with Jung-Koo Chang & Fighting Harada) has been discussed a lot here recently, I wanted to bring up an issue in regard to one of Moon's amateur fights that has always puzzled me. Now Moon had a fabulous amateur career, winning everything out there except an Olympic gold, which he only missed because his skin erupted after a head butt (Moon bled easily; this is one of the misgivings I have about him in a hypothetical match-up with Watanabe or Galaxy).
Anyways, the said puzzle is in regard to Moon's 84 Olympic fight with an American fighter named Robert Shannon. Let me describe what happened in the fight, for those who never watched it. Shannon comes out trying to slug with the ultimate slugger & gets rocked early by Moon. He then changes his tactic in the middle of the 1st round & boxes, where he has success. Then in between 1st & 2nd round, the American coach tells Shannon something like: "Why are you boxing him? You can out-punch this guy. Go get him."
LOL!
This advice is as bizarre & crazy as asking Chris Byrd to go out & slug with Ike Ibeabuchi! Moon probably hit harder than any Asian fighter I have ever seen & has been known to knock out welterweights in sparring (his knockout of Dong-Kil Kim, a world class Korean amateur at junior welterweight who perhaps should have won the Gold in 84 Olympics is a stuff of legend in Korea). Why would the U.S. coach ask the kid to slug with Moon? It is not like Moon was an unknown at the time; he had already had tremendous success in international competitions. Either the U.S. coach may have not seen or heard of Moon or he was just plain stupid.
Anyways, the outcome is what you would have expected. Shannon gets pummelled for the next 2 rounds & is stopped in round 3. This is truly the one Gold that got away from the Americans in 84, as I think Shannon could have beaten Moon had he just kept up what he was doing in round 1.
Again, what was the U.S. coach thinking?
P.S. By the way, ironically, for all Moon achieved as an amateur, he was arguably not even the best Korean amateur bantamweight of his time. That distinction likely belongs to Young-Mo Huh, who supposedly beat Moon all 3 times they met as amateur (I am getting these fights soon), in addition to beating Kwang-Sun Kim (an Olympic Gold medalist & a fighter that nearly beat Chiquita Gonzalez after less than 10 pro fights) numerous times. But Huh never turned pro because of a rather sickening hand injury. This is too bad for the boxing world, as the man may have been a dominant flyweight/bantamweight if he did.
[ December 13, 2003, 08:21 AM: Message edited by: Joonie73 ]
Anyways, the said puzzle is in regard to Moon's 84 Olympic fight with an American fighter named Robert Shannon. Let me describe what happened in the fight, for those who never watched it. Shannon comes out trying to slug with the ultimate slugger & gets rocked early by Moon. He then changes his tactic in the middle of the 1st round & boxes, where he has success. Then in between 1st & 2nd round, the American coach tells Shannon something like: "Why are you boxing him? You can out-punch this guy. Go get him."
LOL!
This advice is as bizarre & crazy as asking Chris Byrd to go out & slug with Ike Ibeabuchi! Moon probably hit harder than any Asian fighter I have ever seen & has been known to knock out welterweights in sparring (his knockout of Dong-Kil Kim, a world class Korean amateur at junior welterweight who perhaps should have won the Gold in 84 Olympics is a stuff of legend in Korea). Why would the U.S. coach ask the kid to slug with Moon? It is not like Moon was an unknown at the time; he had already had tremendous success in international competitions. Either the U.S. coach may have not seen or heard of Moon or he was just plain stupid.
Anyways, the outcome is what you would have expected. Shannon gets pummelled for the next 2 rounds & is stopped in round 3. This is truly the one Gold that got away from the Americans in 84, as I think Shannon could have beaten Moon had he just kept up what he was doing in round 1.
Again, what was the U.S. coach thinking?
P.S. By the way, ironically, for all Moon achieved as an amateur, he was arguably not even the best Korean amateur bantamweight of his time. That distinction likely belongs to Young-Mo Huh, who supposedly beat Moon all 3 times they met as amateur (I am getting these fights soon), in addition to beating Kwang-Sun Kim (an Olympic Gold medalist & a fighter that nearly beat Chiquita Gonzalez after less than 10 pro fights) numerous times. But Huh never turned pro because of a rather sickening hand injury. This is too bad for the boxing world, as the man may have been a dominant flyweight/bantamweight if he did.
[ December 13, 2003, 08:21 AM: Message edited by: Joonie73 ]