The diminutive fighter now known as world champion boxer and kickboxer Kim "Fireball" Messer was found wandering with no identification in a train station in Chechon, South Korea as a four-year-old orphan. After this, she lived in the Holt Agency orphanage in Chechon until 1971. Her Korean name ... Kee-Soon Baek ... was given to her in the orphanage. Adopted and brought to the USA by John and Marlys Sanford, she grew up in Silverton, Oregon with a new American name ... Kimberly Sue Sanford.
While Kim was in high school, her athleticism found conventional outlets in ballet, volleyball, softball, tennis and gymnastics. She also played piano and was a cheerleader. "I’ve always been a borderline tomboy," she says. But in college at Chemekata Community College in Salem, Oregon, she discovered her affinity for martial arts and sport karate.
She began by studying Tae-Kwon-Do for seven years. While doing so she met her future husband and manager, Mark Messer. Looking for greater challenges (and for more contact, "we were kindred spirits", she says) Kim and Mark both took up kickboxing. Kim parlayed her skills into two successful ring careers, the first as a world champion kickboxer, and the second as a world champion pro boxer.
As a kickboxer, her fast, aggressive style earned her a solid reputation and world championships in the International Sport Karate Association (ISKA) and the World Kickboxing Association (WKA). Kim's leg kicks were devastating but she softened her opponents up with her punches before launching them ... so her later success as a pro boxer was not a surprise.
|
