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My fourth visit to Korea was
certainly an adventure of note.
Starting with a ten hour flight
from Cape Town to Dubai, a few
hours on the Ipad waiting, and
then the second ten hour flight
from Dubai to Seoul. I have to
say that the technology on board
Emirates was outstanding, with
passengers having access to live
football, internet as well as
Skype – which collectively
resulted in zero hours sleep.
Added to this, our outstanding
WBF referee Darryl Ribbink had
been booked on a different
flight to Korea and thus as
usual I had a small panic as to
whether Darryl, well known for
getting lost on boxing
assignments, would arrive. To
his credit, Darryl arrived in
Seoul a few hours after me, and
after some strong coffee, our
driver took us on the four hour
journey to Jinju, where the
event was being hosted.
Meeting my friends, the director
of KBA Hoosik Choi and President
of KBA
Jung Pyo Kim,
many hugs and smiles took place
and we started to discuss the
growing relationship between the
KBA and the WBF. Now perhaps one
might wonder about the cultural
differences, let alone the
language barrier but as is the
case in boxing – boxing is
almost a universal language on
its own, and boxing has its own
way of bringing problems in
culture and language to an end,
thus uniting people from all
over the world.
After four days of incredible
hospitality, current WBA world
champion Hyun-Mi Choi, herself a
fantastic character, won our WBF
Super
Featherweight
title with a comfortable
decision over the tenacious
Unathi Myekeni of South Africa.
The time in Korea simply
enforced the growing
relationship we have with the
Korean society and, of course,
the KBA. Much credit must go to
the hard work of KBA director
Hoosik Choi and KBA chairman
Jung Pyo Kim for their
professionalism, dedication and
their vision in seeing Korean
boxing grow bigger and bigger
together with the WBF.
A beautiful country, kindest and
most respectful people, some
outstanding boxers, and a
country with some of the most
interesting food in the world! I
look forward to returning to
Korea on August 27 for our next
world title fight, and to all
the people who looked after us
with such dedication and
enthusiasm, I say from the
bottom of my heart – thank you!
Until next time, keep boxing.
Howard Goldberg
PRESIDENT: World Boxing
Federation
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