Park Jong-pal

South Korean boxer . The main building is Muan (務安). Jeollanam-do Muan-gun Born in Suban Village, Maegok-ri, Muan-eup.

It was a legend of Korea's boxing world and a hard punch that defeated Korean boxing weight in the 1970s and 1980s .

He was the IBF and WBA super middleweight champion.

He debuted in professional boxing in 1977, and in 1978, he defeated Choi Chang-baek by KO in the third round and became the Korean middleweight champion.

After that, he repeatedly won by KO with powerful punches, recording 18 consecutive KO wins. This is the second-highest record in Korea, following Baek In-cheol 's 26 consecutive KO wins.

The destructive power of his punches was so good that he had almost no opponents in Asia. However, it was somewhat difficult for Asian fighters to challenge for the world's top rank in heavyweights such as middleweight, and Park Jong-pal also realized the gap with the world's top rank by suffering an 8th round KO in a match against his nemesis, Fulgencio Ovelmeillas, held in Venezuela in 1981. do.

In addition to the East, people in the West and other overseas countries have better bones and physiques than Asians, so the higher the weight class, the bigger the gap with the rest of the world was bound to be. Park Jong-pal himself even said in an interview, "Even if the weight class was the same, it was clear that non-Asian athletes from the West and South America had better physiques and skeletons than me."[9]

vs. Obermeillas 1st match. It was played in 10 rounds. Park Jong-pal recalled that his punches did not come out properly as his body floated while playing at high altitude in Venezuela.

The match against Obelmeillas was a prelude to the world title, and if he had won, he could have had a title match with “The Butcher” Marvin Hagler , the unrivaled middleweight, but he lost the match and was said to have been very disappointed about it.

Afterwards, while continuing to defend his title as Asian champion, he took advantage of the opportunity and suffered a KO loss in the 7th round to his old enemy, Na Kyung-min.

However, four months later, he held another return match and won by KO in the fourth round to regain the Asian title. At this time, even though it was a match between domestic players, the match itself was quite a hit thanks to the skills of high-level players such as Park Jong-pal and Na Kyung-min, and the powerful charm of the middleweight class.

Afterwards, Park Jong-pal enters the newly established boxing association IBF. The weight class is super middleweight, which is just above middleweight.

At the time , compared to the WBA or WBC that were established earlier, the IBF was lagging behind in all aspects, including reputation, recognition, box office success, and player skills. However, as mentioned earlier, it was a heavy weight class that was not easy for an Asian athlete to overcome.

Park Jong-pal entered the newly established IBF in consideration of the gap with the world's top class, jumped into the newly added weight class, super middleweight, and eventually had a title match with Scotland 's Murray Sutherland , the first champion of that weight class .

In a match held in Korea in 1984, he was knocked down once in the beginning of the match, but he was knocked down four times with powerful punches, won by KO in the 11th round, and became world champion. Afterwards, he successfully fought eight defense battles, and this can be seen as his prime. Because of this, the profits from fight money itself were so enormous that his fortune was said to have reached 9 billion won after his retirement.

Although none of the opponents in the eight defense matches were the best in the world, they were not easy opponents to watch. For example, in the case of Murray Sutherland, he lost a match against Hearns, one of the strongest middleweights, but he performed well all the way to a decision. Moreover, as mentioned earlier, the fact that Asian players overcame their innate power and fought against non-Asian players was amazing in itself. Among the players he met during this process, the matches against Lindell Holmes and Vinnie Curto, who were relatively difficult opponents, were notable matches.

He had two matches with Lindell Holmes in Korea alone. He struggled greatly in the first match, but the match was canceled due to Park Jong-pal's injury, and when they met again in the 8th game, their last defense, Park Jong-pal struggled greatly and was decided by split decision. barely won. Lindell Holmes later won the IBF super middleweight championship, which became vacant after Park Jong-pal gave up the title.

Vinnie Curto met Park Jong-pal twice in the title match and won both of them, the second of which was held in Los Angeles, USA, and this victory was Korean boxing's 'only title match victory in the US '. Until 2021, the result of away title matches in the United States is 1 win and 27 losses.

Of course, it cannot be said that all defeats were due to skill, but most of them were, and in the case of Kim Deuk-gu , who died in a match against Mancini, the expedition to the United States was literally called a graveyard for Korea. However, since it was an away victory in the heavyweight division rather than the lightweight division, its value is even greater.

The second fight against Vinnie Kurto. In the 3rd round, they took the down and succeeded in overpowering them, and then, just before the start of the 4th round, a streaker woman in a bikini broke into the ring, danced, and shadow boxed the referee . The match ended with Park Jong-pal's dramatic 15th KO win.

Afterwards, he voluntarily surrendered the IBF title. In the case of Park Jong-pal, it can be said that he belonged to the IBF and faithfully performed his duties as a champion, but the situation at the time was better for him to surrender the IBF title.

As explained earlier, IBF is inferior in all aspects to WBA or WBC. In addition, during the defense of Kwon Sun-cheon, the IBF champion in the 1980s, an incident in which a lower-level player was sent out in the guise of the player in question, was an opportunity for Korea's disappointment and distrust in the IBF to spread significantly.

When the WBA created the super middleweight division, Park Jong-pal gave up the IBF title and moved to the WBA, where he fought against Mexico 's Jesus Gallardo for the super middleweight championship.

Like the Murray Sutherland match, he was knocked down early in the match, but he was later knocked down several times and won by KO in the second round, becoming the world champion once again.


Highlights of the Gallardo match. It was a hot game with a slugfest from the beginning.

Afterwards, he also won a defensive battle against Poli Pasireron. This was Park Jong-pal's time at Leeds .

However, the second defense opponent is determined to be an agricultural obel Meiyasu who has moved to the weight , and Park Jong -pal lost eight KOs and lost the champion title in this game held at the special ring of Waikiki, Suanbo on May 23, 1988 .


Afterwards, he lost by KO in a non-title match to Baek In-cheol , one of Korea's heavyweight heavy hitters, and retired from active duty.

A total of 46 wins (39 KO wins), 1 tie, 1 nullity, 5 losses (4 KO losses).

He was an excellent boxer, and as was the highlight of the heavyweight division, he showed tremendous power, with 39 of his 46 wins coming by KO, thanks to his powerful punching power.

His technique was also of a high standard, and the luck that he was able to perform on his stage through the establishment of the IBF and super middleweight also played a role, but overall, he was a very good player enough to flavor an era of Korean boxing.

However, weak defense and tenacity to immediately go down even after receiving a not-so-strong hit can be considered weaknesses.

If you look at the down scenes, there are surprisingly cases where you get knocked down even though you are not at a strong level. This is also comparable to players who were active in similar weight classes at the same time, such as Baek In-cheol and Hwang Jun-seok .

After retirement, Park Jong-pal started various businesses based on the money he earned during his active career, but he suffered large losses several times and eventually lost all his assets. According to what he revealed during his appearance on Three Wheels with his wife, the fight he worked so hard to prepare was canceled due to internal strife in the boxing committee, so he received a refund and also lost the money he spent on training the players. It is said that a bar opened in Gangnam also went bankrupt. They exchanged bills , which are marketable securities, as if they were cash...

Because I had no experience, skills, or knowledge about anything other than boxing, it was difficult for me to adapt, and I also got caught up in a lot of scams by bad people.[10] After losing all of his assets, he felt suicidal and was unable to take care of his body, but thanks to his current wife, who remarried through an arranged marriage , he got his life back and ran a boxing gym. According to articles in Monthly JoongAng and Joongbu Daily, both Park Jong-pal and his wife felt their trust and love for each other right away when they met. Human Theater (January 2012) opened a restaurant selling boiled duck in Suraksan Mountain .[11] , teaching boxing to a 19-year-old young man.[12] , the daughter studied well, graduated from graduate school , and married a handsome man, leading to a happy life.

As of August 2018, he closed down the boxing gym in Jangan-dong and the duck stew restaurant he ran with his wife near Suraksan Mountain, purchased 10,000 pyeong of land at the foot of Bulamsan Mountain in Byeolnae-myeon, Namyangju-si, Gyeonggi-do, and is in the process of running a health healing center where he grows medicinal herbs. According to JoongAng Ilbo and Monthly JoongAng, “I grow herbs and exercise every day as if I were playing.” When a reporter from Joongbu Ilbo visited for an interview, Park Jong-pal served herbal coffee with medicinal herbs... You can listen to his boxing lectures on YouTube, and reading the comments, it seems that people learning boxing are comforted by the confidence-boosting lectures.

He is also a standing advisor to the Korea Jeju Boxing Committee (KJBC). Occasionally, he appeared on terrestrial or cable TV, and he surprised viewers by showing off his rust-free boxing skills . His hand speed is still at a level that is not inferior to that of active boxers.

However, the steps look a little awkward, and there is a theory that this is because his legs became very uncomfortable after the last match with Lee Hyo-pil described below. Even if this isn't the case, there's probably an age issue as well.

After retirement, I had a mixed martial arts match with Lee Hyo-pil in an event match in 2003.[13] At that time, martial arts were not as popular as they are now, and as a match to revive the stagnant martial arts market, it was held between Park Jong-pal, who had a brilliant record in the Korean boxing world, and Lee Hyo-pil, who was the first generation of mixed martial arts in Korea. And since the two were known by Lee Hyo-pil's side before the match to be close friends , it was expected that it would receive some media attention and be such a heart-warming match ...

He created a dark history in the Korean fighting machine by engaging in a rare match . Just before the game, Lee Hyo-pil created a warm atmosphere by providing Park Jong-pal with honey water and castella, but when the game started, Lee Hyo-pil was forced to wear leather shoes, which are prohibited in standing games.[14] low kick He performs a psychological kick of friendship and attempts to stamp a downed opponent, earning the nickname Hyophir and performing rare frauds. Nowadays, anyone can see that it was a poor match full of dirty fouls by Lee Hyo-pil, but since martial arts were not widely known at the time, it was just a hot match between old men and did not raise such a big issue.[15] They left behind a rare match that you can't help but laugh at now, and they also left behind countless other stories , such as the story that is currently going around, 'Boxing is no match for kickboxing' , which caused a huge crack in the friendship that had lasted for over 20 years between the two.

Lee Hyo-pil was very jealous of Park Jong-pal, who was better than him, and Park Jong-pal thought of Lee Hyo-pil as just a close friend, so he went to the game without thinking and ended up getting hit in the back and suffered a misfortune. After this game, Park Jong-pal broke his leg and had to undergo major surgery, and it is said that his leg is still uncomfortable to this day. In the above-mentioned article, there is a sentence that says, "The steps look uncomfortable." Boxing is a sport that moves the arms and legs together (an example is the back technique of moving the body backwards), but since he injured his leg, Park Jong-pal suffered a serious injury as a boxer. After the match, Lee Hyo-pil made provocative remarks to Park Jong-pal, such as saying , "I followed the rules. What's the problem? " and made the excuse that he had unknowingly developed habits from a no-rules fighting group, and did not commit a foul.[16] , Although it was a rivalry fighting for the championship, he frequently made remarks that went against the sports spirit of respecting the opponent, and he pointed out Mike Tyson and Choi Hong-man from his time at Leeds as the next hit , but of course, the match with the player who did not respect the sports spirit did not take place.

Afterwards, he appeared in the 2013 Korea Reconciliation Project - Forgiveness . Park Jong-pal did not receive the apology in the end due to Lee Hyo-pil's insincere apology, but at the end of the broadcast, he can be seen making peace by mentioning that Lee Hyo-pil's apology opened his heart. However, since this show itself mostly involves reconciliation at the end without any conclusion, there is a high possibility that the script responded to the reconciliation through reluctance. If they had sincerely reconciled, there would have been some exchange of greetings afterwards, but there was no mention of each other at all.

In 2022, he is working with YouTuber Kim Gye-ran as a director on the boxing-related content "Girls Who Slap the Face" at Physical Gallery, and is training students with the goal of competing in sports competitions. Shorts to avoid jabs briefly became a hot topic, with over 4 million views. He also appeared with Kim Gwang -seon (1988 Seoul Olympics flyweight gold medalist) as the cover model in promotional material for the promotion examination, which is an official certification test hosted by the Life Boxing Association .

On April 30, 2022, MBN's national team lost a confrontation with Jung Min- ho , the current WBC Asia Welterweight Silver Champion, in an event match in the national team. The round was 2 minutes, and in the 4th round, he wore headgear, and his opponent, Jung Min-ho, also adjusted his pace, and it was a game that he watched a lot, but he showed a sharp counter and pressure ability that was hard to believe for a veteran in his 60s, and he played the game along with physical problems. Despite suffering injuries such as a torn calf muscle during preparation, he finished the game to the end. After the game, Jung Min-ho bowed deeply to Park Jong-pal and expressed respect for his senior, and Park Jong-pal patted the back of such a junior with a heartwarming scene of encouragement. and created an impressive match.