Last week, Choi Hyun Mi, a 17-year-old boxer the South Korean media has dubbed the "Defector Girl Boxer," won the World Boxing Association women's featherweight championship. While most female South Korean boxers say they first took up boxing to lose weight, Choi is boxing to support her family, who fled North Korea in 2004. Though her family was wealthy in North Korea, her parents have been unable to find work in South Korea and her brother is in college. As a champion, Choi can earn about $10,000 per fight, but she is fighting for more than the money. "My parents gave up everything in North Korea to give their children a better life in the South," she says. "Boxing is my way to prove that my parents made the right decision." [International Herald Tribune]