Forty One-Year-Old Champ Lee Kyung-hoon’s “Asia Conquest”

Lee Kyung-hoon (41), the oldest Korean champion, will challenge for the Asian Championship. Korean middleweight champion Lee Kyung-hoon will be matched against Japanese Yoshihiro Araki (31) on July 18 at the potential final round of the Orient and Pacific Boxing Federation (OBPF) championship held in the Osaka Central Gymnasium in Japan. A potential final round is arranged to decide the new champion if the incumbent champion cannot defend his title. Australian Sakio Bika is the current middleweight champion of OBPF, but he reportedly suffered a muscle injury during training and cannot defend his title for a while.

Against this backdrop, OPBF office decided to conduct a potential title match between the Japanese middleweight champion and Asian top ranking Araki and Asian second ranking Lee Kyung-hoon.

The winner of the match will obtain the qualification to fight against the current champion for the undisputed championship. If the current champion cannot defend his title because of personal reasons such as injury, the winner of the potential title match will be the champion. Lee Kyung-hoon recorded 4-1 (3 KO’s) and Araki 17-2. However, there are some positive predictions for Lee Kyung-hoon since he has gone through intensive training and has tremendous punching power.

Lee Kyung-hoon said, “I have analyzed Araki’s video tape. He is an excellent boxer with great abilities, but he apparently has a weakness. I will do my best. I am very confident about the match.”

Meanwhile, along with Lee Kyung-hoon’s game, North Korean boxing hero Hong Chang-su (31, Japanese name: Masamori Tokuyama) will have a match against super flyweight champion of World Boxing Council Katsushige Kawashima (30).

Won-Hong Lee bluesky@donga.com