Korean Zombie Defeats Dan Ige via Unanimous Decision

Chan Sung Jung kept his title dream alive by defeating Dan Ige tonight at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Korean Zombie was better than the American after a unanimous decision, posting his 17 MMA win.

All three judges scored in Jung’s favor, 48-47, 49-46, 49-46, handing the Korean Zombie a well-deserved victory, which keeps him in the elite echelon of the UFC featherweight division.

“I wanted to show all my skills and the capabilities of becoming a champion,” Jung said. “I wanted to show everything and bring everything in this fight.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T6mA88EYoA

And he really did. Jung was versatile, hurting Ige from all sorts of angles. Once seeing that the stand-up fighting won’t make a significant difference and that Ige responds well to it, the 34-year old veteran changed the tactics, starting to score takedowns, moving the fight to the floor.

Jung had three takedowns, and in each one, he was on top, dictating the flow and attacking his opponent. During the third and the fifth round, the Korean tried to submit Ige, but didn’t succeed in his intention.

Jung dropped the American in the second round with one overhand right, which perfectly hit the target, but Ige answered well, surviving this round. The 29-year old responded in the last five minutes, shaking Jung on several occasions, yet without enough juice to finish things.

Like a true warrior, Ige would accept the loss following the fight, suggesting that he gave everything in his power to win, but that simply today, he didn’t have the quality to beat Jung.

“I went out there and fought my best,” Ige said. “I came in the absolute best, I have no excuses. Zombie is an absolute legend,” Ige said.

This is the second loss in three latest bouts for this guy, and his rise towards the top of the featherweight division has slowed down enormously over the past few months. Ige had two big tests, both of them the main events, this and the one against Calvin Kattar. He would lose on both occasions.

After having six consecutive victories, this is a completely new experience for Ige, who will now have to get back to the basics and improve in order to become a title-contender at one point.

As for Jung, his name is still in title talks. If it weren’t for a loss to Brian Ortega recently, we would probably see the Korean Zombie going against Alexander Volkanovski until the end of the year. Still, that defeat disrupted Jung’s plans, and eventually, Ortega got his place.

Jung mentioned Max Holloway following this battle, immediately sparking the imagination of MMA fans who now hope to see the bout between these two legends. It would undoubtedly be a title-eliminator battle, with a guaranteed match against the champion as the prize.

In other fights, we saw Sergey Spivak defeating Aleksei Oleinik in the co-main event of the night via unanimous decision. Marlon Vera beat Davey Grant in the exact same way in the bantamweight match while Matt Brown delivered one of the best KOs of the year against Dhiego Lima, ending the fight with a vicious one-punch bomb.

That earned him the Performance of the Night bonus, while the Fight of the Night honors went to Marlon Vera and Davey Grant, whose battle was by far the best at the entire event.