Earlier this year in Japan we saw one of the wildest fights of the year, as Tyson Koki (16-7-3, 13) [王杉康輝] snatched victory from the jaws of defeat to take out hard hitting Korean fighter Deok No Yun (9-2, 7) [윤덕노] and claim the WBO Asia Pacific Super Middleweight title.
Today the two men rematched, this time in South Korea, and the bout was nothing like their first, which had been a 75 second shoot out that had seen Yun dropping Tyson in the opening seconds, and get caught by a counter as he went in for the finish, and being left flat on the canvas. That first bout had been an epic, a short lived thriller. Today’s rematch was much less wild, less exciting, but to be a second interesting bout between the two men.
After being knocked out whilst bossing the first bout Yun fought the rematch much more intelligently, pressuring early on without taking any sort of crazy risks. He was pressing and landing the better shots, but there was no crazy intensity as he instead showed Tyson genuine respect and fought well off his jab, not giving Tyson any real chances. It was a clear sign of a fighter being caught and learning from his mistake, and not getting greedy as he had in fight #1.
Tyson, who had gone down in round 2 from a low blow, looked dangerous, but old, slow and unable to like a man who almost knew he had gotten lucky in fight #1, and was hoping to land another fight ending bomb out of nowhere. The low blow, which genuinely did hurt him, seemed to take some extra steam out of his sails.
As the rounds went by Yun continued to box smart, using his youth, his speed and his movement just as much as his power, looking for mistakes from Tyson, and chances to land his powerful right hand and seemed to feel more and more like Tyson wasn’t as much of a risk as he had been in round 1. The cautiousness going round by round as Yun sought to hurt Tyson, landing big shots in round 3, and again in round 4 as Tyson began to have the fight beaten out of him. He remained dangerous, but the respect Yun has had in the opening round had faded by the time Tyson was taking combinations in round 4, with blood leaking from his nose. Even when Tyson did land it did little more than buy him a bit of space and a chance to catch a quarter of a breath before Yun got back on the offensive.
By round 6 it seemed clear there was only going to be two outcomes. Either Tyson would catch Yun was a freak shot, similar to their first fight, or Yun, who was now brimming with confidence, would eventually break the heart of Tyson. In the end it was the latter of those that happened, with Tyson being on the end of some punishing shots through round 7. The shots left Koki looking hurt, being rocked more than once and he seemed to be surviving on heart alone at times, as Yun let shots fly until Tyson’s corner threw in the towel saving their man, who had taken some heft punishment as the fight went on.
