October 23, 2003
SEOUL, KOREA-His victory denied and his championship belt taken away, Injin Chi, the WBC top featherweight contender from Korea, cried in a dressing room when his decision win was reserved to a majority draw last Saturday in Manchester, UK. Great many of five million people in Korea, at the same time, watched Chi’s temporary win over #2 ranked Michael Brodie on TV shown live from UK as they got up early to view it at six am on Sunday due to the time difference. They had a happy holiday, watching the new world champ’s birth. All of the Koreans, however, were greatly stunned to read the next day’s papers to realize that Chi wasn’t the world champ, but still a title aspirant. This incident caused the nationwide sympathy with the best Korean prospect Chi’s failure to seize the belt despite such a fine performance by dropping Brodie with his furious attack in the second round and showing his last surge to seemingly confirm his victory. Chi had previously displayed a grueling battle with Eric Morales in Los Angeles, though losing a close verdict to win the crowd’s admiration in 2001. No one, this time, was to blame, but it was just a simple mistake in calculation on the tallies. It has produced a national move to ask for a rematch to take place in Korea. Should it be held in Korea next time, it would be a financial success as people will certainly show great interests in their grudge fight. The negotiation will be started soon between Poongsan Promotions of Korea and Matchroom Sport of UK after they see the recovery of both contestants from heavy damage after the furious battle called British Fight of the Year.
(10-23-03)