Physical: Asia alums Kim Dong-hyun and Amotti from ‘Physical: Asia’ had recently mentioned Australia and Turkey as the most threatening countries in the competition. In an interview with OSEN, the athletes said Australia stands out as their physicality is overwhelming.
Amotti further explained how a player named Eloni was close to "190 cm tall and over 100 kg", and is a rugby player, as he admitted that it was really intimidating. Kim Dong-hyun weighed in on the conversation as he said,
“Turkey had no weaknesses.”
Physical: Asia alums Kim Dong-hyun and Amotti talk about fellow competitors
As athletes, Amotti and Kim Dong-Hyun talked about their fellow competitors and who is the best athlete in the arena. Amotti named a few as he said,
“Sung-bin’s power is unmatched in South Korea. Seung-yeon is the top female CrossFit athlete in Asia. It was very reassuring. Min-jae is a strongman. Eun-sil is a former wrestling national team member and excels in physicality. The team is the strongest. I thought we could win first place.”
Amotti also talked about the country with the strongest first impression, naming Australia. While Kim Dong named Turkey. He further stated,
“People think Mongolia is very strong, but the Turkish female wrestler looked extremely powerful. During the territory occupation battle, someone very strong was holding me. I thought I’d be dragged out, but it turned out to be her. Later, when planning a joint operation with Turkey, we suggested the men stand in front and protect the women. But the Turkish male athletes said, ‘Yasemin is stronger than us, so she can stand in front.”
Physical: Asia producer reveals the real inspiration behind the show
In an interview with Deadline, Netflix’s ‘Physical: Asia’ producer Jang Ho-gi revealed to Deadline that it was legendary Filipino boxer Pacquiao, the world champion in eight different divisions in boxing, who is the “inspiration behind the whole franchise.”
While talking about boxer Pacquiao, Jang Ho-gi recalled how he always wanted to work with him, so whenever he had the chance, he would go to see him when he came to Korea, or he would contact him.
“He invited me over to his house in the Philippines, so I switched flights to get to General Santos, where I went to his house and saw him train. He also treated me to a whole meal. I ate together with him and played games with his sons.”
The show producer also took this opportunity to reveal that team Mongolia's inclusion in the show came "through a different process."
“It was a little bit special, because after maybe season one or two wrapped, we were meeting with a lot of different people, including Mongolian government officials. They proposed to me that it would be fun to have 15 Mongolian athletes and 15 Korean athletes [compete], like Korea versus Mongolia. I said that it would be fun, but what’s more fun would also be having more countries and an Asian version."
Physical: Asia is currently streaming on Netflix. Stay tuned for more updates.
Physical: Asia (Image via Netflix)