Korean ‘Million Dollar Baby’ turning pro, seeks title shot

Choi Hyeon-mi

First Rocky, then Hilary Swank as Maggie Fitzgerald in the Oscar-winning “Million Dollar Baby.”
Now comes Choi Hyeon-mi, a high school girl and a North Korean refugee. She is taking a shot at professional boxing, starting Sept. 18.
Choi is a Saeteomin, or North Korean refugee. A South Korean-government sanctioned term, “Saeteomin” means people living in a new environment.
Choi’s manager, Kim Yong-ho, Choi’s manager, has registered her with the Korea Boxing Commission.
“She will have her debut match in December with a Japanese boxer,” said the manager.
Kim hopes that Choi will be able to challenge for a title in May of next year.
Choi left for Japan on Aug. 20 for training.
She has dominanted the middle weight division as an amateur boxer, and she had offers to become a professional, but her goal was to win a gold medal at the Olympics.
However, she has run into a problem: the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympics doesn’t have a women’s boxing category and there is no guarantee that there will be women’s boxing in the 2012 London Olympics.
“If the pan-Korean games had women’s boxing, I would have stayed as an amateur,” Choi said.
The decision to turn pro wasn’t easy for the teenager to make.
As an amateur boxer, Choi had a record of 16 wins and one loss. Among the wins, 14 matches were won by RSC, which stands for Referee Stopped Contest.
Last year when she entered high school, Choi had five amateur titles and only one loss.
“It was my first encounter with a left hander. I was confused for a moment and I gave opponent points,” Choi said of her one-point defeat.
The North Korean native boxer weighs 57 kilograms (125 pounds) and is 1.7 meters (5-foot-6) tall.
She has natural speed and power coupled with more than seven years of training, dating back to her days in North Korea.
She is also daring.
“I want to fight all the current world champions,” Choi said.
Currently, Korea has seven female professional world champions in boxing.
Most of them are in the lighter weight classes.
Pay for female pros can be around 10 million won ($11,000) a match.
“I will avoid no one,” Choi said.
“I can’t wait to compete with the world champions from Russia, Cuba and the United States.”
Born in Pyongyang, Choi came to South Korea in 2004 with her parents. A physical education teacher in North Korea noticed her ability to run and suggested that she try boxing when Choi was 11.
Even at that age Choi was good enough to fight opponents 10 years older. Since 2004 she has been training in South Korea.
In 2005, The Associated Press called Choi the “Korean Million Dollar Baby,” after the Hollywood film. Choi saw the Clint Eastwood movie on the day it opened.
“The movie has a sad ending. I want mine to be a happy one by winning the world championship.”

By E Choong-hyoung JoongAng Ilbo