1. Kim Duk-koo was a South Korean boxer who died after fighting in a world championship boxing match against Ray Mancini.
21 Facts About Kim Duk-koo
1. 2.
Kim Duk-koo's death sparked reforms aimed at better protecting the health of boxers, including reducing the number of rounds in championship bouts from 15 to 12.
3.
Kim Duk-koo's father died when he was two and his mother married three more times.
4.
Kim Duk-koo worked odd jobs, such as a shoe shiner and a tour guide, before getting into boxing in 1976.
5.
Kim Duk-koo was lightly regarded by the US boxing establishment, but not by Ray Mancini, who believed the fight would be a "war".
6.
Kim Duk-koo struggled to lose weight in the days prior to the bout so that he could weigh in under the lightweight's 135-pound limit.
7.
Mancini and Kim Duk-koo met in an arena outside Caesars Palace on November 13,1982.
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Kim Duk-koo tore open Mancini's left ear and puffed up his left eye, and Mancini's left hand swelled to twice its normal size.
9.
Sugar Ray Leonard said Kim Duk-koo came right back very strong.
10.
Kim Duk-koo reeled back, Mancini missed with a left, and then Mancini hit Kim Duk-koo with another hard right hand.
11.
Kim Duk-koo went flying into the ropes, his head hitting the canvas.
12.
Kim Duk-koo managed to rise unsteadily to his feet, but referee Richard Green stopped the fight and Mancini was declared the winner by TKO nineteen seconds into the 14th round.
13.
Ralph Wiley of Sports Illustrated, covering the fight, would later recall Kim Duk-koo pulling himself up the ropes as he was dying as "one of the greatest physical feats I had ever witnessed".
14.
Minutes after the fight was over, Kim Duk-koo collapsed into a coma and was removed from the Caesars Palace arena on a stretcher and taken to the Desert Springs Hospital.
15.
Kim Duk-koo had fought 15-round bouts three times and gone on to round 14 once before.
16.
Kim Duk-koo compiled a record of 17 wins with two losses and one draw.
17.
Kim Duk-koo's mother flew from South Korea to Las Vegas to be with her son before the life support equipment was turned off.
18.
Kim Duk-koo left behind a fiancee, Lee Young-mee, despite rules against South Korean boxers having girlfriends.
19.
At the time of Kim Duk-koo's death, Lee was pregnant with their son, Kim Duk-koo Chi-wan, who was born in July 1983.
20.
The World Boxing Council, whose regional championship Kim Duk-koo held prior to relinquishing it for a WBA championship opportunity, announced during its annual convention of 1982 that many rules concerning fighters' medical care before fights needed to be changed.
21.
Champion is a 2002 South Korean film about the life and career of Kim Duk-koo, played by Yu Oh-seong.