Korean Zombie contemplated lightweight move after failure to book top ten opponent

It’s been nearly half a year since we last saw Chan Sung Jung in action. “The Korean Zombie” lost via a dominant unanimous decision…

By: Milan Ordoñez | 3 years ago
Korean Zombie contemplated lightweight move after failure to book top ten opponent
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It’s been nearly half a year since we last saw Chan Sung Jung in action. “The Korean Zombie” lost via a dominant unanimous decision against Brian Ortega in October in a fight wherein he says he blacked out in the last three rounds.

Jung has yet to book himself another fight. As he recently revealed in his YouTube channel, he was offered a fight against either Arnold Allen or Soqid Yusuff for February. He asked for a postponement for April, but the UFC instead matched up Allen and Yusuff against each other.

Jung had the likes of Max Holloway, Calvin Kattar, and Zabit Magomoedsharipov in mind as possible opponents. But since those matchups aren’t available, it’s left him in limbo.

“All the fighters that the UFC has given me to fight are now fighting each other,” Jung said (translation via YouTube). “I’m just kind of stuck in a pickle. The UFC gave me a list of fighters to fight and Sean Shelby believed that they’d return to the ring in time for me to fight.

“Even though I was down to fight, our schedules did not match and it didn’t work out. Everyone in the top ten is scheduled to fight one another, leaving me with no one. The UFC won’t allow me to fight anyone outside of the top ten.”

With his growing frustrations to book an opponent, Jung was made to contemplate about making a move back to lightweight.

“I had recently sat down with Coach Eddie and Jason, my manager, and had the discussion about moving from the featherweight division to the lightweight division,” he revealed. “I asked Sean if I could fight any lightweight fighter ranked in the 15th to 20th place.

“Nevertheless, I had to give that up after hearing about how long I would have to wait. Since I had nothing scheduled as a featherweight fighter, I thought moving to the lightweight division wouldn’t be so bad. At least I would be doing something. But sadly, that didn’t work out, either.”

As a featherweight, Zombie holds notable wins against the likes of Dustin Poirier, Frankie Edgar, and Renato Moicano.

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About the author
Milan Ordoñez
Milan Ordoñez

Milan Ordoñez has been covering combat sports since 2012 and has been part of the Bloody Elbow staff since 2016. He’s also competed in amateur mixed martial arts and submission grappling tournaments.

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