Who can stop Huh Mimi

Huh Mimi, still just 21 years old, is the new -57kg World Champion. And she did it by beating two of the best players in the category. Her semifinal was against World Champion Jessica Klimkait (CAN). She then defeated double World Champion Christa Deguchi (CAN), in the final.

She had previously lost to both of them. Klimkait defeated her in the semifinal of the 2023 Ulaanbaatar Grand Slam while Deguchi defeated her in the 2022 Jerusalem World Masters.

Having shown she is able to beat the World No. 1 and 2, Huh (currently ranked No. 3) is a top contender for the 2024 Paris Olympic gold. But she will face other tough challengers as well.

She has fought Japan’s representative Haruka Funakubo twice and lost both times. Another player she has had a lot of trouble with is Mongolia’s Enkhriilen Lkhagvatogoo (World Ranked No. 13), whom she had fought and lost to three times (in 2022, 2023, 2024).

It should be pointed out though that when Huh loses to her opponents, most of the time it is due to penalties and not because she was thrown or caught on the ground.

For example, Huh's defeat to Klimkait in the 2023 Ulaanbaatar Grand Slam was by penalties. It’s interesting to note that when Huh defeated Klimkait in the 2022 Tashkent World Championships, it was also by penalties.

Huh’s two defeats to Funakubo, in the 2023 Doha World’s and the 2022 Tashkent World’s, were both by penalties. interestingly, Huh’s defeats to Lkhagvatogoo in the 2024 Asian Championships, the 2023 Doha World’s and the 2022 Tashkent Worlds were all by penalties.

So, when Huh loses, it’s usually by penalties. An obvious exception was her semifinal match against Deguchi at the 2022 Jerusalem World Masters where she was thrown with tomoe-nage twice for waza-ari-awasete-ippon.

But it was obvious that she has since learned how to fight Deguchi. Their final in the 2024 Abu Dhabi World Championships was a long-drawn out affair that went deep into Golden Score. Eventually, Huh won out when a worn-out Deguchi got her third shido.

A dark horse that could really give Huh a hard time is Lkhagvatogoo. She’s never been able to throw Huh but she has beaten her three times in as many years.

Huh, however, has shown that she is very capable at learning from past experiences and can fight a tactical match if she needs to. Deguchi learned that the hard way at the 2024 Abu Dhabi World’s recently.

You can be sure that Huh has been studying videos of Lkhagvatogoo, to avoid losing a fourth time, should they meet in Paris.