The Korean Zombie is back, ladies and gentlemen! After an incredibly long layoff, featherweight Chan Sung Jung overcame the odds and scored a gorgeous first-round knockout win at the expense of No. 9-ranked Dennis Bermudez at UFC Fight Night 104 in Houston on Saturday.
Naturally, the fight was as messy and brutal as his nickname would suggest. Within just a few seconds, Bermudez was teasing Jung with takedowns, forcing him to lower his hands and opening up avenues for big overhands that landed early and often. Jung's chin remains a steely as ever, though, which allowed him to stalk forward, despite absorbing serious punishment.
As Bermudez grew more confident, his jabs became less disciplined; Jung identified this and punished him for it with a devastating uppercut. The punch folded Bermudez in place, and a bit of ground-and-pound sealed the deal.
After more than three years out of action, Jung scored a victory over a top-10 opponent via TKO at 2:49 of the first round.
To say the odds were stacked against him would be a profound understatement. Entering this bout, the Korean Zombie had not been seen in the Octagon since his ill-fated title shot opposite Jose Aldo in 2013, which he lost via TKO after dislocating his shoulder. That injury forced him out of the cage for over a year and plagued him through 2014, forcing him out of a return bout at UFC Fight Night 53 and into his two years of mandatory military service in his native South Korea.
Traditionally, a long, involuntary layoff for a popular star would be followed by a relatively easy opponent to both gauge where he stacks up in a wildly different division and let him shake off some ring rust. The UFC, however, inexplicably pitted him against a top-10 opponent, putting him into a high-risk, high-reward position.
From a technical standpoint, this doesn't mark a turning point for Jung, given how much damage he absorbed in the early stages of the fight. From a promotional perspective, however, the significance of this win cannot be understated.
In a division that is big on talent but short on star power, Jung's victory comes at the perfect time and sets him up for a big fight, and possibly even a title eliminator. Granted, the championship queue is muddled with three men holding belts at this time. The Zombie can't be too far off from forcing his way into that discussion, though, and if he looks better in his next outing, he may just be a real threat to the elites at 145 pounds.
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