Hong Soo-Hwan Survived Four Knockdowns to Win a Second
Hong Soo-Hwan won the inaugural WBA super bantamweight championship against Héctor Carrasquilla in Panama City on November 26, 1977. He recovered from four second-round knockdowns to win by knockout in the third.
Two world championship divisions
Hong had previously held the WBA bantamweight championship, winning it from Arnold Taylor in July 1974. Alfonso Zamora succeeded him as champion in March 1975.
The Carrasquilla contest brought Hong a second division’s world title. The unbeaten Panamanian contender had stopped all eleven of his previous opponents before meeting the South Korean boxer.
The rivalry remembered
Ricardo Cardona ended Hong’s super bantamweight reign in May 1978. Decades later, the Carrasquilla fight remained one of the most frequently recalled performances in South Korean boxing.
In 2016, Carrasquilla visited Seoul as a Panamanian congressman and arranged a reunion with Hong, then head of the Korea Boxing Commission. The former opponents spoke of their continuing respect despite the dramatic result that had linked their careers.
Hong’s winning punch in the third round was a left hook, overturning the damage he had absorbed only minutes earlier. Carrasquilla later explained that a rematch never happened because he struggled to make super bantamweight and moved to featherweight. Their 2016 reunion plans followed an earlier television meeting in 1999, showing that contact between the former rivals had continued long after retirement.
Sources
- BoxRec: Hong’s two WBA championship reigns
- Yonhap News Agency: Carrasquilla recalls the 1977 fight and plans his reunion with Hong
