Vietnamese boxers are competing with professional boxers from the Republic of Korea at the Vina Boxing Cup 2018, held in the southern province of Dong Nai on July 7.

Photo for illustration

The event is organized thanks to a cooperation agreement among the National Sports Administration, the Vietnam Boxing Federation and the South Korea Boxing Committee (KBC) in April.

After this tournament, KBC aims to train Vietnamese boxers professionally for international tournaments.

Former World Boxing Association (WBA) Champion Hong Soo Hwang of the RoK attended the event. Hwang wished Vietnamese boxing would soon shine in elite tournaments such as Asian Games or Olympics.

Earlier, boxers of Vietnam and the RoK also competed in the Vietnam Nam- Korea Professional Boxing Tournament in 2015 in HCM City.

According to Tran Minh Tien, Chairman of the Vietnam Boxing Federation, the event is a test towards for organizing future professional boxing fights in Vietnam.

“At present, the RoK has more than 40 world champions. The country would like to cooperate for a long term with Vietnam as it sees that Vietnam has potential to develop boxing professionally. The Vina Boxing Cup is a semi-professional event but it is the first event to test to hold a professional event in the future with the active support of the RoK,” said Tien.

In the past two years, Vietnamese boxing has made big strides.

Nguyen Thi Tam made history as the first Vietnamese female boxer to win an Asian title last year, while male boxer Tran Van Thao was awarded Boxer of the Year for 2017 by the World Boxing Council Asia in April in Bangkok after he won the WBC Asia Super Flyweight title last November./.

( VNF/VNA )