Hyun Mi Choi successfully defends the WBA title
Having won a major title in her very first professional bout, Hyun Mi Choi has been in a title fight (minor and major) for every pro fight except one. In just 18 bouts, the WBA junior lightweight champion has held the WBA title in two divisions. After signing with Matchroom Boxing, Choi makes her debut outside of South Korea against journey-woman Calista Silgado.
A win here will put Choi in line for a unification against amateur rival Terri Harper!
RELATED: Hyun Mi Choi: “My Ultimate Desire is to Unify All the Titles!”
SLOPPY FIGHT, SLOPPY NIGHT
Besides the fact that she came into the fight heavy, indicating training camp was probably terrible, Silgado is definitely not the next Amanda Serrano! Actually, Silgado lost to her along with her sister CIndy, WBO champ Mikaela Mayer, Shelly Vincent and a host of other mid-level to world champion fighers.
Hell to put more detail on this, she is 5-5 in her last ten bouts! The only thing really going for her is her toughness. In eleven loses, she has only been stopped three times. The last coming from none other than Amanda Serrano in 2016.
Therefore when Choi, who did not look good herself, opened up bludgeoning a resilient Silgado, this was expected. I’m not sure if nerves got to the champion but she was sloppy in this fight. However, that didn’t matter because Silgado was even sloppier!
Choi did clean things up and show why she is a two-division champion with an extensive amateur career by the fourth round. She took the fight to Silgado and landed combinations . She did a good job (considering her opponent) setting up openings by mixing up her point of attack. Silgado already has virtually no defense. Therefore, her trying to guess where the next punch was coming from while under heavy amounts of pressure was like trying to pass a Calculus test without studying first.
Regardless of how sloppy the challenger was, the champion still got caught with some unnecessary shots. In particular, Silgado landed the over-hand right with ease. This is the side-effect of Choi’s work-rate and bruiser style. Nevertheless, this was easy work for the champion even though she probably showed 60% of her skill-set.
WHO’S NEXT
It’s no secret Choi is looking to get her rival Terri Harper in the ring! This is more than likely the very reason Matchroom Boxing added her to their stable. Of course you have the brash Mikaela Mayer who wants to unify right away.
Given this performance, Choi may want to look into taking another fight to get acclimated to fighting outside of South Korea and on a worldwide network like DAZN first!
By: EJ Williams
