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Reports: Choi Hong-Man out of the fight game for three years
By Zach Arnold | April 14, 2008
From Yeo Jong-Hoon
News story and interview.
It appears that Choi Hong-Man will head to the Korean army training center on April 21st. He decided to head to the army and not postpone because he could have been in trouble with South Korea’s military laws. It is very difficult to get a visa for him. Hong-Man ended up canceling his role in the casting of “Transporter 3.” After four weeks of basic army training, Choi will work for the national service conscript instead of being a soldier because he is too big. He may do traffic tickets, parking tickets, speeding tickets, or copy papers at a district office. What comedy.
Topics: K-1, Media, MMA, South Korea, Zach Arnold | 9 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Draft equals slavery.
It’s an abomonation that we have here in Sweden to.
We have conscription here in Finland aswell and almost everyone feels it is a positive thing, builds caracter and a sense of pride in the people who serve.
Ofcourse Swedish people wouldn’t know what that is :/
On topic, copying papers for 3years sounds like alot of fun.
The crazy thing is, it’ll probably cost them more money and people just for him do his national service. Can you imagine how much attention Choi will have just walking around and giving tickets?
Maybe his presence will invigorate the new generation of soldiers…
If John McCain wins the election, I assume to continue his “100 years” of war he’s planning in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US will need a draft.
And yes, a draft = slavery. When you take someone’s freedom of choice away, you’re enslaving them.
And even though I’m sure there are worse places to live than South Korea, having your career and dreams taken away – at least temporarily – is quite demoralizing.
What’s with all the war, drafts, and undeclared invasions? Why can’t we all just get along? 🙁
“We are all one”. – Genki Sudo
It makes sense that Choi wouldn’t be a soldier. I mean, the 7’4″ behemoth would be the first to get shot in a fire fight.
The Korean government will now pay him to copy papers instead and forgo the potential tax income from his fighting career. Government is a wonderful thing.
Great news post!
“What’s with all the war, drafts, and undeclared invasions? Why can’t we all just get along? 🙁
“We are all one”. – Genki Sudo”
Well said…
His service will most likely not be for 3 years. Korean draft laws seem to get people for around 24-26 months.
Who knows, he may get to fight while he’s in the military. They let some conscripts (who were already famous gamers in Korea) set up a Starcraft team in the military, maybe they’ll do the same for an actual sport.
If military fighting in Korea is like how it was in the US when Boxing legends like Joe Louis and Fritzie Zivic fought while in the armed forces, it was 99% of the time a charity fight for either a real charity or war bonds, so it’d pretty much be for the pleasure of fighting and little else.