Kim Ki-soo (; September 17, 1939 – June 10, 1997) was a South Korean former professional boxer who competed from 1961 to 1969. He was South Korea's first world boxing champion, having held the undisputed WBA and

WBC WBC may stand for: Business *Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, a former large India broadcaster now folded into CBS *Westpac (New Delhi Exchange code: WBC), a multinational Financial services company *Wholesale Broadband Connect, BT Wholesale's ...

super-welterweight Light middleweight, also known as junior middleweight or super welterweight,PeBoxRec/ref> is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing The light middleweight division (also known as junior middleweight in the IBF or super welterweight in the WBA an ...

titles from 1966 to 1968.

Amateur career

Kim graduated from

Kyung Hee University Kyung Hee University (abbreviated to KHU) (Hangul: 경희대학교; Hanja: 慶熙大學校) is a private research university in South Korea with campuses in Seoul and Suwon. Founded in 1949, it is widely regarded as one of the best universities i ...

's College of Physical Education. He competed in boxing at the 1958 Asian Games in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, where he earned the gold medal of the welterweight division by defeating Soren Pirjanian of Iran, on points, in the final. He went on to represent

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

as a welterweight at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games, where he defeated Henry Perry (Ireland) on points, but then lost to Nino Benvenuti (Italy) on points.Kim Gi-Su
sports-reference.com

Professional career

Kim turned professional in 1961 and captured the

, WBA and Lineal light middleweight title when he upset Nino Benvenuti by split decision in 1966. He defended the belt twice before losing it to Sandro Mazzinghi in 1968 by split decision. He retired the following year.

Later life

After his retirement, Kim worked as a boxing coach. He later started his own company, and was successful in business. He died of

liver cancer Liver cancer (also known as hepatic cancer, primary hepatic cancer, or primary hepatic malignancy) is cancer that starts in the liver. Liver cancer can be primary (starts in liver) or secondary (meaning cancer which has spread from elsewhere to th ...

on 10 June 1997, at the age of 57. He was survived by his wife Jeong Ha-ja (鄭夏子), two sons, and two daughters.

Professional boxing record

References

External links