Lim Chi Bin vs Su Hwan Lee 2009

Here is the promised bout between Lim Chi Bin and Su Hwan Lee.

This was in the finals of the K-1 MAX Korea tournament in 2009. Korea produces very technically refined fighters, though no very dominant ones. Perhaps they lack the brutality and toughness characteristic of most high level Muay Thai fighters. This video is actually a good place to start inquiring into that because these two are Korea's finest home grown kickboxers.

Lim Chi Bin has been fighting K-1 and Muay Thai for a long while. His first major fight was against none other than Masato in the round of 16 for the K-1 MAX tournament in 2005. He came up short then and has had a mixed record in K-1 since. Lim shows improvement throughout his fights, particularly in his boxing, and is a mainstay in the K-1 lineup because of his popularity in the Korean market. As mentioned in the Kido vs Lim post, he is a little small for 70 kg, and his last superfight at the MAX Final 16 2010 in Seoul, where he put on a very good showing, was at 67 kg. His technical style and decent power means even top opponents have to be on their game to beat him convincingly.

Su Hwan Lee is a big Korean lad, standing at a broad-shouldered 180 cm (5'11"). He has the ingredients to pose problems for a lot of fighters because, on top of his size and technicality, he is a southpaw with a penchant for distance fighting. We saw an example of a devastating distance fighter in Nong-O Sit-Or in the last post, and fighters like Masato and Badr Hari would be considered distance fighters in the K-1 ruleset, though under Muay Thai rules, Buakaw Por Pramuk and Gevorg Petrosyan are more typical, using kicks, teeps, and jabs, and the occasional long knee before utilizing a powerful clinch game to force the fight back to a distance.

These fighters had met twice before with Su winning by 1st round KO in 2007 and Lim winning by 3rd round TKO in 2006. In this bout, Lim fights out of the red corner and Su the blue.



Thanks very much to tottenham19 for the upload. Does this fight not remind you of Badr Hari vs Ruslan Karaev and Satoshi Kobayashi vs Osman Yigin? Lim comes back from devastating knockdowns to capitalize on the questionable chin of his opponent. I don't know Yigin's track record in that regard, but certainly Karaev has been KOed quickly plenty of times. Returning precision fire like Hari, Kobayashi, and Lim did is really quite admirable. It's an homage to their training, heart, and coldness of mind that they're able to stand up and, doubtlessly with dazed minds, place knockout shots right on their opponent's chins. Lim did this after winning two previous tournament fights, no less.

Lim's legs were literally wrapped in bandages and injuries had piled up, judging from his reactions to Su's kicks and knees. After the second knockdown, Su could have played a points game or even picked Lim apart with low kicks. It's likely he thought the match was won and didn't consider carefully enough the inside low kick that got him floored. The obvious choice would have been to go for Lim's head or at least reset and wait for openings. However, fighting by heart is what makes these classic bouts.

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It is important that a fighter stays cerebral during the bout. It is proper to go for the finish when you smell blood, but be wary. Unless you are far behind on the cards, it is better to take your time, and even if you are behind, pick shots and protect your head. There are countless examples of mistakes like this in English boxing, though I don't know enough of the sport to name a seminal match, and most MMA fans can relate this to Pete Sell vs Scott Smith. Andy Souwer, conversely, is great at finishing fights without overly endangering himself. A fighter, no matter how dangerous offensively, has to mind his defense. Niccolino Locche, the famous Argentinian defensive master in English boxing, showed that you could win surely and consistently without threatening to knock out your opponents.

Dany Bill is a fighter who took a more careful mindset in a match with Ramon Dekkers with interesting results. We'll visit that battle between two European legends of Muay Thai later. Post your thoughts on this bout below.