By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
Korean mixed martial arts (MMA) star Choi Hong-man arrived in the United States Friday for medical tests amid mounting suspicion that the promoters of the super-sized, 2.18-meter fighter have been holding back information about his health.
The 27-year-old is attempting to seek a favorable second opinion from a U.S. doctor as he prepares to appeal the rejection of a fighter's license by the California State Athletic Committee (CSAC) in June, which based its refusal on medical grounds citing a tumor on his pituitary gland.
Officials of the Fight Entertainment Group (FEG), the organizers of the K-1 MMA league that has Choi under contract, told the Korea Times that Choi would be tested by Dr. Robert Bray from the St. John's Health Center's Spine Institute in California.
Although Choi's camp insists that the tumor is benign and not bleeding, making it safe for him to participate in combat sports, the CSAC is unlikely to reverse its decision should the tumor remain.
Brazilian fighter Antonio Silva, who was also refused a license by the CSAC on the same medical grounds as Choi, recently underwent surgery to remove the tumor, which pressures the Korean to do the same should he want another shot at fighting in the U.S.
The health concerns raised by the CSAC hasn't stop Choi from fighting as he recently beat American Gary Goodridge earlier this month in a K-1 tournament in Hong Kong.
``The CSAC report in June certainly scared me. I have taken four more tests from specialists since then and they all told me that my condition would not require surgery and I am okay to fight,'' Choi said before leaving for the U.S.
``I am human. If I believed I had a 0.01 percent chance of facing a life-threatening situation if I continued to fight, I certainly wouldn't do it,'' he said.
Park Yu-hyun, Choi's agent, said that his client received a medical opinion recently from a Korean doctor that the tumor had not been growing for the past five years and is currently covered with a thick cell wall, making his participation in combat sports safe.
Although Choi's camp seems determined to downplay the medical concerns, they are failing to shield themselves completely from the criticism that they attempted to spin the truth about the fighter's health.
Choi participated in a K-1 event in Las Vegas in April last year with the state of Nevada granting him a fighting license. In the medical report filed to the state authorities, which was later reviewed by the CSAC, his MRI is clean and has no mention of a tumor on his pituitary gland.
With the CSAC finding a tumor _ 2 centimeters long _ just a year later in their tests, there are suspicions that Choi's camp may have faked the medical documents he submitted for the Nevada event.
It would have certainly been a life-threatening case had the tumor had grown at that pace over a one-year-span, which is apparently not Choi's case as he says he knew about the tumor since high school.
FEG is denying such claims, saying that they never submitted an MRI film to Nevada authorities as the state athletics commission did not require it. The company is considering filing a lawsuit against television station KBS, which aired an in-depth news program that focused on the suspicions.