HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese boxers will compete with South Korean professional boxers at the Vina Boxing Cup 2018 which begins in the southern province of Đồng Nai today.

The friendly event will feature five matches with five Vietnamese fighters, namely Võ Thị Kim Ánh, Bùi Công Danh Lợi, Cao Văn Nguyên, Nguyễn Văn Đương and Nguyễn Hồng Thắng. The South Korean boxers are Lee Seong Ho, Suh Moon Chui, Park Hye Soo, Lee Nam Jun and Moon Seong Hyoek.

The event was organised thanks to a co-operation agreement among the National Sports Administration, the Việt Nam 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 South Korea will attend the event. Hwang wishes Vietnamese boxing will soon shine in elite tournaments such as Asian Games or Olympics.

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

According to Trần Minh Tiến, chairman of Việt Nam Boxing Federation, the event is a test towards for organizing future professional boxing fights in Việt Nam.

“At present, South Korea has more than 40 world champions. South Korea would like to co-operate for a long term with Việt Nam as it see that Việt Nam has a 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 South Korea,” said Tiến.

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

Nguyễn Thị Tâm made history as the first Vietnamese female boxer to win an Asian title last year, while male boxer Trần Văn Thảo 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. — VNS