Boxing helps troubled kids find new life

Shin Dong-sun, a former detective who has taught boxing to hundreds of juvenile delinquents, poses at the Black Bear Boxing Gym in western Seoul on Friday. / Korea Times

By Kang Hyun-kyung

As a police detective, Shin Dong-sun was tenacious. While chasing criminals, he said he had never given up. “If you don’t give up, you can arrest criminals within three years,” he said. His determination earned him the nickname “black bear,” a name he later used for his boxing gym.

Shin, a former detective who has taught boxing to hundreds of juvenile delinquents to help give them a second chance, is optimistic about the sport. He says the future of boxing is promising, mentioning a recent surge of people doing boxing workouts.

“Boxing helps people focus on their goals. It motivates them to build the drive to win and increase their fighting endurance,” he said during a recent interview at the Black Bear Boxing Gym in Gangseo-gu, southwestern Seoul. He now teaches about 160 students in the gym.

The retired detective hoped that the popularity of boxing workouts would ultimately lead to renewed public interest in the sport.

In the 1970s and ‘80s, he recalled, there were plenty of ambitious young boxers. “For poor young people who had no other means to succeed in their lives, boxing was considered a shortcut to become rich and famous,” he said. “If they worked hard, it was relatively easier to be successful in the sport than in other areas.”

The sport’s decline, however, became evident in the 1990s. Fans increasingly lost interest in the “cruel” sport that sometimes led to boxers’ deaths. They gradually turned their attention to other sports that are fun and enjoyable, such as baseball and football.

The results of the 2016 Rio Olympics, which ended two weeks ago, showed vividly the wane of boxing as a sporting event. No Korean boxers won medals. Korea had collected 19 medals in total, including three golds, for boxing in the past Olympics.

Despite the disappointing results in Rio, Shin, 61, said a low fertility rate is one of the driving forces behind the sudden interest in boxing as a workout in recent years.

“Single-child parents take their children to the gym for boxing,” he said. “Through the sport, they want their children to be self-motivated and independent.”

Shin had been an amateur boxer for years before he joined the police force in 1980. The career change from boxer to law enforcement officer came after he was eliminated in the Moscow Olympics qualification tournament.

His bond with boxing, however, continued even after he joined the police force.

While chasing and arresting criminals, he said he found many teenagers caught in a vicious circle of social exclusion and crime.

“After being released from prison, they found nowhere to go. Employers rejected them because of their criminal records. They were not accepted in society as well,” he said.

To give them a second chance to establish a career, Shin began to teach boxing to juvenile delinquents and talented teenagers who had a hard time making ends meet. With the help of some generous donors, he was able to open a boxing gym in Hwagok-dong, Gangseo-gu, in 1986 and taught underprivileged children there as a volunteer instructor until 2006. Shin returned to the gym as a full-time instructor in 2011, following his retirement from the police force after his three decades of service there.

More than 300 teenagers have benefited from his “talent donation” and many of them became professional boxers.

Former WBA super featherweight champion Choi Yong-soo, 44, is one of his students. Since he won the title after defeating Victor Hugo Paz by knockout in Argentina in 1995, Choi defended the title seven times before losing it to Takanori Hatakeyama. When Shin first met the boxer in the early 1990s, Choi was a high school dropout having a hard time making ends meet. After recognizing Choi’s talent, Shin found a sponsor to help him focus on boxing without distraction. Shin traveled with Choi to Argentina when the boxer successfully won the WBA title.

Asked to name his favorite boxer, Shin said he believed the late Kim Duk-koo (1955-1982) was the greatest. Kim died following a match against then champion Ray Mancini in Las Vegas. Kim was taken to hospital after he collapsed into a coma after the fight but died four days later. Kim’s death led to a set of reforms in boxing rules to better protect boxers.

“I think Kim is great because he was fearless and fought to the end to achieve his goal,” said Shin. “I regret that his endeavor led to a tragic end though.”