15.10.03 – By Chris Curry: In an atmospheric night in September back in the year 2000, Manchester’s Michael Brodie stepped through the ropes of the squared ring in his home town to contest his sports ultimate prize. The championship of the world. Brodie earned his chance at the title in the way many old school British world title challengers and future world champions proceeded before him, having won the British, Commonwealth and European titles. Michaels shot at the world championship could not be denied, but the prestige green belt of the WBC could be.
Michael Brodie was undefeated and matched against the undefeated Willie Jorrin for the WBC Super Bantamweight title that Erik Morales had vacated in pursuit of Featherweight glory. Brodie cheered on by his home fans, looked on the verge of winning his lifes ambition. Despite being dropped in the tenth round, Michael had dug deep throughout the contest and had clearly done enough to seal the championship. There was an heroic feeling around the arena that their man had done it. When the verdict was announced a look of betrayal and emptiness eroded Michaels face as if life itself had left him.
On Saturday night the demons and ghosts of September 9th 2000 must surely be in his mind. Michael Brodie will be stepping into the ring once again in Manchester for the WBC world championship. This time at Featherweight after the title became vacant with Erik Morales having been elevated to “emeritus” status. This boils down to a mouth watering confrontation between the WBC number two ranked Brodie and the WBC number one ranked Injin Chi.
Injin Chi of Korea was the unheralded number one ranked contender for Erik Morales in July 2001. Chi lost his professional debut on points in 1991 and never lost again until Erik Morales. Having fought a career mostly in Korea many boxing fans had never heard of Injin Chi, to others he was a name they only saw in the rankings. His record raised question marks over his position, filled with names of no recognition.
After the fight with Morales we had a new name to remember at Featherweight. Chi arrived in the west and fought as gallant and as brave as any challenger I have seen. Morales was made fight to retain his title and Chi’s resistance and will to win sickened the champion. In defeat Injin Chi took away a moral victory and it can be guaranteed the Korean will be in top physical condition and will be there to fight on Saturday night.
At Featherweight Brodie has been in great form and in completive fights. Having won the WBF and IBO titles, which may look good around his waist, Michael knows he’s not a world champion. He has another chance to grasp the honour that was taken from him and to do this he has to fight the fight of his life. Brodie uses the ring well, keeps busy and has good variety in his work. He needs to use the ring and his speed to get his shots off first and beat Chi to the punch. What he must not do is hang around and slug it out with the Korean. Chi will have the physical strength advantages and this style of fighting would suit the Korean best. The one thing that has worried me about Michael is, at times he has taken too many shots. He has to keep to his boxing in order to beat Chi. Michael has been the more busy of the two and has kept his competition at a higher level. But remember, Chi’s competition was not high when he fought Morales. Or was that just his night?
I expect the fight to be entertaining and completive, rough for the two at times. They are both determined fighters in an even money match with a world championship on the line. I believe Michael Brodie is the hungrier of the two and will be the new WBC featherweight world champion over twelve hard rounds. This time Brodie will not want the honour of “World Champion” to be denied.
Questions or Comments to chris_esboxing@hotmail.com