Forgotten Warriors: Ji-Hoon Kim

[BoztheMadman]

Also spelled Kim Ji-hoon, this guy was pure action! Nicknamed “Volcano” and justly so, JKH was an explosive and hard hitting boxer who defeated and knocked out a few good or solid fighters, but came short of becoming the world champion. At 5’9 or 176 cm, he was also a tall lightweight and had a rather good chin, getting knocked out only twice-but interestingly, both times in the first round. He has fought for the IBF title, losing on points to Miguel Vazquez.

He was born 17 January 1987 in Goyang City, South Korea, and started fighting as a pro after only six weeks of training! That is how much he loved to fight and he was still only 17 when he became a pro, first fighting at featherweight, having his first fight on 5 October 2004 in Chungu, SK, and losing on a 4-round decision. He then scored two second-round knockouts before losing another decision in 4 and then in the next fight he got knocked out for the first time against the debuting Byung Kyung Yoon, in the first round. That was on 26 January 2005 and it would go a while before he would get knocked out again. He captured the national featherweight title on 25 September that same year, knocking out Jung Hoo Kim in 2 rounds.

In 2008, he relocated to Philadelphia and moved up to 130, immediately getting a fight against a better opponent in Koba Gogoladze of Georgia, fighting him on 16 May in Las Vegas. Kim showed his impressive offensive skills and power by stopping Gogoladze by TKO 1; after first appearing to be in trouble, he dropped the Georgian and then stopped him shortly thereafter and thus he introduced himself to the boxing world. He would then go on a knockout streak and on 12 September 2009 he won the minor IBO title by stopping Zolani Marali by TKO 9 in his own homeland, South Africa. He vacated the title soon thereafter to move up to 135 and then first fought Tyron Harris and dropped him once en route to a TKO 5 victory. This gave him an IBF-eliminator fight against Ammeth Diaz of Panama, another big puncher, at that time probably the hardest one at 135. Panamanian Diaz had more experience, but Kim produced his best victory on the night of 21 May 2010, in Laredo, Texas. At first, Diaz had the upper hand and shook Kim with a  combo, but warrior Kim fought back and in the last 20 seconds he nailed Diaz with a perfect counter right which put him down. Although Diaz got up in time, he couldn’t stand properly and the fight was waved off with one second left of the first round.

This of course gave Kim the Volcano a fight for the vacant IBF belt, which had been stripped from Nate Campbell for not making the weight. Kim faced the 5’10 Mexican technician Miguel Vazquez on the night of 14 August, once again in Laredo. This time, things wouldn’t go well as Vazquez simply proved too hard to hit and too clever and he won the title with the scores of 119-109, 120-108 and 118-110. Kim took another fight only two months later, which proved a mistake, as he went to Australia to fight their hopeful, the 24-0 Leonardo Zappavigna. It was on 31 October, Halloween Night, that Kim experienced his second devastating knockout loss. He started aggressively and the shorter Zappavigna then nailed him with a left and a big right after 1 minute and 4 seconds that put Kim on his backside. Kim got up immediately and was given an eight count. Only seconds later, Kim was sent down again by an overhand right and got up. This time he looked shaken and after taking a few more big punches, the referee stepped in and waved it off at 1:41. This was also an IBF-eliminator, which meant that Kim’s chances at getting another title fight were now very slim.

He returned in February next year and won the South Korean lightweight title, however this time needing a split decision to beat a local fighter with a 3-0 record. He was then gone for almost a year before returning on 27 January 2012 and beating the solid Yakubu Amidu by UD 10. On 25 May same year, he faced Alisher Rakhimov of Uzbekistan, who then had a record of 23-0, and was a top boxer. The fight was hard and ugly with plenty of head clashes and Rakhimov landed a low blow in round 8, but Kim managed to swell his right eye up and by round 9 Rakhimov also bled from his mouth. Kim was proclaimed the unanimous winner in the end, with uneven but mostly lopsided scores. He had entered the fight a 2.15/1 betting underdog. He threw no less than 1225 punches in this fight and landed 792. On 6 December, he fought the solid contender Raymundo Beltran and both guys were down in the first round, but Beltran won in the end by wide margin, in a 10 rounder. 
 

In 2013, he first dropped another ten round decision to clever Mauricio Herrera at 140, before fighting at 147 in his last fight against Roy Tua Manihuruk of Indonesia, 20 July in Yesan, SK. He easily stopped Manihuruk early in 3rd round by TKO and with that won the WBO Asia Pacific title. Ji-Hoon Kim was 26 when he retired, but an old 26, having fought for nine years and been in some brutal wars. His record is 25 wins, 19 by ko, and 9 losses, 2 by ko. His time on top was short, but exciting, much like some of his best fights. He was a true kill or be killed boxer and simply didn’t play chess, he lost to the smartest guys he faced. He was exciting to watch because he often seemed headed towards a loss but then managed to turn everything around and knock his opponent out. After the Zappavigna loss however, he seemed to have adopted a more disciplined approach, as he won several fights on points. It all makes you wonder what kind of career he would’ve had if he hadn’t started so suddenly.