He wants Alexander Volkanovski and it’s hard to argue that he doesn’t deserve that fight. Chan Sung Jung – better known as ‘The Korean Zombie’ – headlined UFC Busan in front of his South Korean fans. After suffering an injury, Brian Ortega dropped out of this clash. So Frankie Edgar stepped up as a short-notice replacement.
However, Edgar and Cory Sandhagen were meant to fight next month at bantamweight. Now it looks like that won’t happen. The Korean Zombie staked his claim for a second featherweight title shot after a scintillating first-round TKO victory over Edgar.
Check out the highlights of the finish below. This was hugely impressive by Zombie, who lapped up the love of the home crowd in his native Korea. After moving fight camp he looked better than ever.
Marc Goodard gave Frankie Edgar every opportunity to stay in the fight pic.twitter.com/quIMnYYdcp
— Jason Floyd (@Jason_Floyd) December 21, 2019
Tough Break
Most people thought that Edgar was taking a big risk by stepping in as a late replacement. ‘Zombie’ is known for his power punches, so did Edgar want to risk getting knocked out at this stage of his career? However, he was game and came forward early in their clash.
But ‘Zombie’ was canny and managed to stuff a takedown. Then he followed up with two hard shots that had Edgar rocked. In short, he had no answer and was trying his best to survive ground-and-pound. At this point, Marc Goddard looked ready to stop the fight, but Edgar was able to escape.
However, the second time he got dropped there was nothing he could do. With less than two minutes left, he was flatlined and battered on the ground. To sum up, the Korean Zombie put on a scorching performance before calling for a title shot. While Max Holloway certainly deserves a rematch, ‘Zombie’ would definitely make things interesting as a fresh contender.
"The Korean Zombie" rises again, burying Frankie Edgar in a mere three minutes and change! Chan Sung Jung may be our sport's greatest cult hero. 🧟♂️ #UFCBusan pic.twitter.com/BGl0Gggs3n
— Kyle Johnson (@VonPreux) December 21, 2019
Exciting Card
Elsewhere, Volkan Oezdemir managed to eke out a very tight split-decision win over Aleksander Rakic. This could very easily have been a draw. The main story of this clash was the ridiculous swelling that rose underneath Rakic’s knee. In short, both men took a lot of damage from this one. Meanwhile, Charles Jourdain starched ‘The Korean Superboy,’ silencing the hometown crowd.
In the featured prelim on ESPN, Cyril Gane outpointed Tanner Boser by unanimous decision. Gane comes from the same stable as Francis Ngannou but is very quick and light on his feet for a heavyweight. Furthermore, he’s very versatile, with excellent striking and a good submission game. Finally, Khabib Nurmagamedov truly is something special because another of his cousins just lost a UFC fight again.
The #UFCBusan crowd reaction after the Korean Zombie TKO’d Frankie Edgar is beautiful pic.twitter.com/wSyzK5U8Zb
— Dylan (@dylangonzalez21) December 21, 2019
Full Results
For full results from a night of action in Busan, South Korea, check out below:
Chan Sung Jung def. Frankie Edgar via first-round TKO.
Volkan Oezdemir def. Aleksandar Rakic via split decision.
Charles Jourdain def. Doo Ho Choi via second-round TKO.
Da Un Jung def. Mike Rodriguez via first-round KO.
Jun Yong Park def. Marc-Andre Barriault via unanimous decision.
Kyung Ho Kang def. Liu Pingyuan via split decision.
Preliminary Card
Ciryl Gane def. Tanner Boser via unanimous decision.
Seungwoo Choi def. Suman Mokhtarian via unanimous decision.
Omar Morales def. Dong Hyun Ma via unanimous decision.
Alexandre Pantoja def. Matt Schnell via first-round KO.
Raoni Barcelos def. Said Nurmagomedov via unanimous decision.
Amanda Lemos def. Miranda Granger via submission.
Heili Alateng def. Ryan Benoit via split decision.
