July 23, 2004
SEOUL, KOREA-Newly crowned WBC feather champ Injin Chi (28-2-1, 17 KOs), Korea, failed to make the weight at his first trip on the scale by two pounds, but barely made it at the 126-pound class limit in 70 minutes afterwards on Friday afternoon in Seoul, Korea. Japanese challenger Eiichi Sugama (26-3-1, 19 KOs) had tipped the beam at 126 at the first weigh-in. It didn’t necessarily indicate Chi’s poor preparation, but some experts criticized his overconfidence even though he was a prohibitive preflight favorite.
Chi, 30, is such a game and gallant fighter that he showed a grueling battle with Eric Morales in a bid for the WBC feather belt, though losing a close but unanimous verdict in Los Angeles in 2001. The iron-jawed Korean fought Michael Brodie for the vacant WBC throne only to be denied a once-announced victory, which finally resulted in a controversial draw after the re-calculation of the official tallies in Manchester, England, last October. Chi, in a grudge fight, impressively finished Brodie in seven lopsided rounds at the same venue this April. His coronation in England made Chi receive a hero’s welcome upon his return to Korea. Having fought three times abroad for the world crown, Chi really feels happy to be able to defend his newly acquired belt before his partisan fans. But his failure at the first attempt on the scale has made some pessimists wonder whether he may be in a tip-top shape.
Sugama, 28, is a hard-punching, if one-dimensional, boxer-puncher from Amagasaki, Japan. He captured the Japanese national feather belt as he scored an upset sixth-round KO win over defending champ Eugenio Yuji Gomez in Tokyo in 2001. Sugama kept it three times to his credit by defeating Momotaro Kitajima, Haruhiko Okuda and Naoto Fujiwara to his credit. But he lost his belt by an unexpected ninth-round knockout by unbeaten lefty Dainoshin Kuma, as he abruptly slowed down and absorbed Kuma’s vicious shots in Osaka in 2002. Since then, Sugama won twice and held WBC #11 ranked Hector Velasquez to a hard-fought draw to be ranked highly in the WBC ratings. Sugama’s performance kept fluctuating, as he looked fine or poor depending on his motivation and conditioning. As his stablemate Nobuaki Naka displayed a good performance against Johnny Bredahl in a quest for the WBA bantam belt in Denmark this year with Sugama himself in attendance, the Japanese challenger has been motivated highly this time to wrest the world throne abroad despite some negative predictions. But Chi is the very best 126-pounder in Asia, and Sugama must admit that he is regarded as a heavy underdog both in Japan and Korea.
The title bout will take place at 3 pm at the Millennium Hall of Central City (which is a sort of shopping center) in Seoul, Korea. Kusung Lee, the impresario of Poongsan Promotions, says that almost all tickets of some 3,000 seats have been sold out due to people ’s high expectation on Chi’s first defense.
The WBC officials are as follows: referee Malcolm Bulner (Australia); judges Fred Ucci (US), Alejandro Rochin (Mexico) and Noppharat Sricharoen (Thailand); and supervisor Edward Thangarajah (Thailand).
(7-23-04)