Throwing in the Towel
By Jonathan Sanfilippo
Staff Reporter
There was no knockout blow. No fight until the finish. No final decision by the judges.
After three competitive rounds of fighting forced the match to go to an extra round, it suddenly ended in lackluster style.
Right before the start of the extra round, Choi Hong-man, the South Korean giant who most of the 15,729 spectators at the Olympic Gymnasium-1 came to see, quit the fight. His corner threw in the towel, giving Badr Hari of Morocco the victory by technical knockout (TKO) in their K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16 match Saturday night in Seoul.
``Scoring a down on Badr is good enough for someone who hasn't been fighting for one year,'' Choi said on K-1's Web site. ``But I was nervous so I couldn't move well, and I made the decision to stop. It wasn't an injury, I was just concerned about my next fight.''
The defeat was the latest setback in Choi's fighting career. The 27-year-old former Ssireum champion has now lost three fights in row, after falling to Emelianenko Fedor of Russia and Jerome Le Banner of France in his two previous matches last December.
Choi, who is 2.18 meters tall and weighs 167 kilograms, reported to boot camp to begin mandatory service with the South Korean military in April, but was later given an exemption from service because he had a tumor on his pituitary gland. He underwent brain surgery to remove the tumor in June but is still working to get back in shape.
Meanwhile, Hari continued his path as an up-and-coming K-1 star. The brash 23-year-old, who vowed to knock out Choi at a press conference Friday, is one of eight fighter who advanced to fight in the K-1 World Grand Prix Final on Dec. 6 in Yokahoma, Japan.
Hari, a 2007 and 2008 K-1 heavyweight champion, and Choi exchanged blows throughout their fight, with the 1.97-meter, 101-kilogram Hari relying on his speed and Choi on power. Hari landed a right punch to finish the first round, then Choi responded with a right hook that sent Hari to the mat in the second round.
However, Hari connected on several hits in the third round as Choi appeared to get tired.
At the end of three rounds, one judged liked Choi while two others viewed the fight as a draw, forcing it to go an extra round. But Choi quit the fight before the start of the extra period, giving Hari the win.
``I had no problem with the extra round,'' Hari said on the K-1 Web site. ``I was prepared to go 100 rounds if I had to _ more rounds just give me more time to beat him up! He only touched me once in the fight, that was the count, and although he's become better, he's not strong enough to beat me. To the fans in Seoul, I'd say I'm sorry I had to beat up a Korean guy, but that's my job!''
In the night's other fights, Peter Aerts of the Netherlands defeated compatriot Semmy Schilt, the three-time reigning Grand Prix Final champion, with a 2-0 decision; Ewerton Teixeira of Brazil defeated Musashi of Japan 3-0; Remy Bonjasky of Holland defeated Paul Slowinski of Australia 2-0; Errol Zimmerman of Holland defeated Glaube Feitosa of Brazil 3-0; Gokhan Saki of Turkey defeated Ray Sefo of New Zealand 3-0; Le Banner defeated Junichi Sawayashiki of Japan 3-0; and Ruslan Karaev of Russia defeated Chalid ``Die Faust'' of Germany with a second-round knockout.
Those seven winners will join Hari at the K-1 World Grand Prix Final in December.