Korea's unknown sports star

By Andrew Dunne

Kim Yu-na. Park Ji-sung. Son Yeon-jae. Park Tae-hwan.

Ask any Korean whether they have heard of these athletes and they will respond with a resounding “yes.”

However, if you ask about Gennady Golovkin, you will likely hear “mollayo,” which is of course Korean for I don't know.

Who is Gennady Golovkin and why should Koreans care about him? He is a professional middleweight boxing champion and he is half-Korean.

So, in short, Korea has another successful athlete to add to their growing list of sporting heroes.

Golovkin has fought 30 times as a professional and has never lost. Perhaps more impressive, he has knocked out all but three of the opponents he has faced. That means he has a 90-percent knockout rate, which is the highest knockout or KO ratio in middleweight championship history. Needless to say, his fights are entertaining to watch.

In addition to his punching power, Golovkin seems somewhat immune to the punches of his opponents. He has never been knocked out or even knocked down in more than 375 fights, both as a professional and amateur.

Speaking of his amateur career, Gennady Golovkin participated in the 2002 Asian Games in Busan. He won the light middleweight category.

Golovkin was born in 1982 in Kazakhstan to a Russian father and a Korean mother. Unfortunately, however, not too much is written about his mother, except that she was an assistant in a chemical laboratory. It would certainly be interesting to know more about her and Golovkin's Korean roots.

Golovkin's father was a coal miner. Sadly, he passed away earlier this year. Growing up, Golovkin also lost two of his brothers. They served in the Russian army and were killed in battle.

Golovkin presently lives in Germany with his wife and son.

If you would like to cheer-on Gennady Golovkin, he will be fighting this weekend against hard-hitting Mexican Marco Antonio Rubio. The fight will take place around noon (Korea time) on Sunday. It will likely not be shown on TV here, but you can watch it online.

Perhaps Golovkin can help revive interest in boxing among Koreans.

A lot of people, especially younger people, may not know that boxing was once quite popular on the Korean Peninsula. A number of older Koreans that I have spoken with recall that friends and neighbors used to gather together to watch fights on television. And, they had good reason to be excited. Korea has a rather decorated boxing history. There have been several Korean world champions, both male and female, including two that have been inducted into the prestigious International Boxing Hall of Fame.

However, boxing's popularity in Korea declined in the 1980's largely as a result of the tragic death of Kim Deuk-ku, who fell into a coma in the ring and died a few days later. The 2007 death of former champion Choi Yo-sam was another blow for boxing in Korea. He also collapsed in the ring and later died, after winning his 32nd fight.

Another reason for the decrease in popularity of boxing in Korea was the country's meteoric rise in economic development. Boxing has long been regarded the world over as a “poor man's sport,” owing largely to the fact that boxing gyms were often located in neighborhoods of lower economic status, in addition to participation costs being relatively inexpensive compared to many sports. Boxing was, therefore, a popular sporting choice for the economically disadvantaged. However, as Korea's economy improved, so too did sporting options. Other, less dangerous leisure pursuits, such as baseball, soccer and golf became more accessible.

Although boxing may have lost its place as one of Korea's most popular sports, Koreans still have much to cheer. Korea has, for instance, a number of current female world boxing champions. Speaking of which, the AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships take place on Jeju Island in November. For anyone interested in that, you can find out more information online.

Until then, tune in Sunday to see if Golovkin can add another win to his undefeated record and remember to chant "dae-han-min-guk,” clap, clap, clap, clap, clap. After all, he is half-Korean.

The writer teaches at Chosun University in Gwangju. He can be reached by email: a_dunne@ymail.com.