Hong Man Choi Accepts Shaquille O'Neal's Mixed Martial Arts Challenge

boast · 2009-10-05T13:24:28-07:00

NBA star Shaquille O'Neal has said on numerous occasions that he would like to fight 7-foot-2 Korean fighter Hong Man Choi in an MMA match when his basketball career ends. The four-time champion even appears to be somewhat serious about this challenge, as videos of him training MMA have popped up on the Internet as of late. When FanHouse contacted Choi, who is scheduled to face Ikuhisa Minowa in the DREAM Super Hulk Tournament semifinals on Tuesday in Japan, about fighting O'Neal at some point in the future, he simply responded via e-mail, "Yes, if there is a chance." Something tells me there's a chance. It's safe to say that the good folks at Fighting and Entertainment Group, DREAM's parent company, would love nothing more than to book this fight. Just look at what they've done with Choi recently: in May 2007, they matched him up with former baseball player Jose Canseco and "Techno Goliath" will outweigh Minowa by 126 pounds when they meet in Tuesday's semifinal bout. In some ways, a fight against O'Neal would be the most logical MMA fight Choi has ever been a part of. Asked whether he believed O'Neal had a chance against him, Choi, who was a man of few words in our interview, responded, "No." Choi is 2-2 in his MMA career. Other than his one-sided victory over Canseco, his only other MMA win was a 16-second first round knockout of Bobby Ologun, a Japanese TV personality, in December 2006. His two losses have come against Fedor Emelianenko and Mirko Cro Cop. link

Oct 5, 2009 at 1:25 PM

49erKing
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Shaq VS.?

Oct 5, 2009 at 1:34 PM

bayarealuv
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that should be interesting

did you see shaq swim vs. michael phelps a couple weeks ago? i guess shaq has his own show in abc or something

Oct 5, 2009 at 4:28 PM

crzy
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Choi would kill Shaq.

Oct 5, 2009 at 5:23 PM

49erfeeeever808
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why's shaq doing this? doesn't Shaq have a basketball season to worry about???

Oct 5, 2009 at 5:27 PM

49erKing
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Originally posted by 49erfeeeever808:
why's shaq doing this? doesn't Shaq have a basketball season to worry about???

Probably going to land on his "VS" show. He's been challenging everyone in all sports.

Oct 5, 2009 at 5:38 PM

49erfeeeever808
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Originally posted by fortyninerglory:
Originally posted by 49erfeeeever808:
why's shaq doing this? doesn't Shaq have a basketball season to worry about???

Probably going to land on his "VS" show. He's been challenging everyone in all sports.

probly..... i just hate it when athletes divide their attention. especially in team sports where they have other players counting on them to be 100% when the season starts.... jmho.

Oct 5, 2009 at 5:59 PM

fzrdave
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Posts: 2,170

I don't know, I guess such a fight has a certain degree of intrigue, but it also kind of makes the sport look like professional wrestling. I don't think Shaq should sully his reputation with stunts like this.

Oct 5, 2009 at 6:28 PM

TonyStarks
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sparring

Oct 10, 2009 at 9:15 PM

HaiGuise
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It might turn into this

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Hong Man Choi Accepts Shaquille O'Neal's Mixed Martial Arts Challenge