By Kang Seung-woo
Staff Reporter
The titles ssirum champion, Olympic judo silver medallist and world boxing champion indicate their holders stand out in their fields.
But such glorious titles did not guarantee a win for South Korean fighters in Monday's mixed martial arts (MMA) ring.
Some bouts showed they are not who they used to be.
At the K-1 Dynamite and the Yarennoka, each held in Osaka and Saitama, Japan on New Year's Eve in Japan, all the South Koreans ― ``Techno Goliath'' Choi Hong-man, former ssirum champion Kim Young-hyun, World Boxing Association (WBA) former super featherweight champion Choi Yong-soo and Sydney Olympic judo silver medal winner Jung Bu-kyung, besides Korean-Japanese Choo Sung-hoon, Yoshihiro Akiyama in Japanese ― suffered defeats.
In the long-awaited match between Fedor Emelianenko of Russia and Choi, the former PRIDE champion beat the 2.18-meter Korean giant one minute and 54 seconds into the first round.
Unlike expectations that Emelianenko, 31, will prevail over MMA fledgling Choi with ease, the size advantage of 2.18 meters to 1.82 had the Korean take down the heavyweight champion, who signed with the M-1 Global, another fighting organization in October, but the Russian fighter attempted an armbar, which was denied when Choi powered out him.
The Korean was strong enough to take down sambo-based foe again but inexperience in the MMA cost him, allowing another armbar, which forced Choi to tap out.
``As I did not have much time for this match, I could not prepare for defending skills like an armbar,'' Choi said in a post-match interview.
Prior to the match, he fought with French Jerome Le Banner at the K-1 World Grand Prix Final in Yokohama, Japan on Dec. 8.
``Thanks to this fight, I grew confident. After much preparation for the MMA bout, I want to face Emelianenko again.''
Judoka Jung proved that he is a real prospect in his MMA debut although he lost to Japanese Shinya Aoki.
The 29-year-old rookie surprised the young but veteran fighter, who was 11-2 before the match with a high-level ground game equipped with a kneebar and an armbar from the beginning, but with the fight proceeding, exhausted Jung gave up several mount positions to Aoki.
Despite his swollen-left eye, he fought to the end but fell by a unanimous decision.
On the K-1 ring, Korean warriors never fought up to their former reputations.
Another ssirum champion Kim earned his career first loss in his second fight.
Taking on Nicholas Pettas of Denmark, 2.17-meter Kim, 31, only looked to being close and bringing up the knees through the bout, which was not as powerful due to Nicholas' strong guard, and often permitted the Dane to attack his lower body.
In the second round, Pettas, who had five wins with four knockdowns in his K-1 career, continued pouring his weapons on slowed Kim and they paid off when his high kick and overhead punch floored him with 41 seconds to go in the second round.
For former boxer Choi, the match against Masato of Japan learned that he has quite a way to go to survive in the K-1.
Choi, who was riding a three consecutive win streak, often bent down when escaping Masato's punches, which was used in boxing, but after growing wise to his pattern, Masato bothered Choi with low and middle kicks, which knocked him down in the first round.
After then, the Japanese took control, and that forced Choi's side to throw in the towel in the final round.