Achieved the second 3 wins in a row since his Octagon debut, a good fighter with a ‘concept’
The UFC Fight Night 218 and Road to UFC competition held at UFC APEX in Enterprise, Nevada, USA on the 5th (hereinafter Korean time), the opponent was injured right before the tournament Six Korean fighters participated except for Kim Ji-yeon, whose match was canceled due to Flyweight’s Park Hyeon-sung, who reached the finals of ‘Road to UFC’, defeated Choi Seung-guk, ‘Jung Chan-sung’s disciple’, with a submission victory in the 3rd round. did.
However, at UFC 218, which was held following, the two Korean fighters did not produce very good results. ‘Korean Superboy’ Choi Doo-ho, who returned to the Octagon after 3 years and 2 months, consistently played the match in his favor against Canada’s Kyle Nelson. turned into In the co-main event, light heavyweight Jung Da-un lost to Devin Clark by decision, falling into a swamp for the first time since his UFC debut.
However, ‘Iron Turtle’ Jun-Yong Park, who participated in the second match of ‘Road to UFC’ without being included in the main card of Fight Night 218, showed off his superior skills against Dennis Tultulin of Russia and won with a submission in the first round. It was the only finish victory among the six Korean fighters who competed that day. Park Jun-yong, who has already won three consecutive Octagon victories, including two consecutive finish victories, is now the ‘ace’ of Korean UFC fighters.
UFC middleweight, which is not easy for Asians to adapt to UFC middleweight
fights with a weight of less than 84kg, but most of them are ‘big guys’ with a weight of more than 90kg. Athletes who have lowered their weight from light heavyweight or who have lost a lot of weight before the competition often weigh well over 100kg. Since mixed martial arts are often divided into middleweight and heavyweight divisions, Asian fighters with relatively low strength rarely stand out in the middleweight division.
Yushin “Thunder” Okami, who holds the UFC record for the most wins among Asian fighters with 14 victories in the UFC alone, recorded 13 out of 14 wins in the middleweight division and is considered the most successful Asian middleweight fighter of all time. In August 2011, he had a title fight with Anderson Silva, who was called the ‘invincible champion’ of our company (but lost by KO in the second round after a one-sided match).
In 2009, Choo Seong-hoon (Japanese name Yoshihiro Akiyama), who stood out on the Japanese stage by winning the K-1 Heroes Light Heavyweight Grand Prix, threw a challenge to the UFC as a middleweight. At UFC 100, his octagon debut, many fighting fans believed that Choo’s middleweight success rate was high when he won a 2-1 decision victory over Alan Belcher and received a bonus. However, the win against Belcher was Choo’s first and last win in the UFC middleweight division.
At UFC 116, Choo Seong-hoon, who had a favorable match against Chris Lieven, was caught in a triangle choke with 20 seconds left in the match and suffered a submission loss. Three months later, at UFC 120, Choo lost to Michael Bisping of England by decision. At UFC 133 in August 2011, Choo lost against Vitor Belfort by KO in 1 minute and 52 seconds.
‘Bull’ Yang Dong-i, who was the first Korean fighter to work as a middleweight, seemed to show the potential of a Korean fighter in the middleweight division by knocking out both of his victories in the UFC. However, Yang Dong-i, who showed weakness in his stamina and match management, left the UFC at the end of 2015 with a disappointing record of 2 wins and 3 losses in the UFC after three defeats. Therefore, Park Jun-yong is a Korean middleweight fighter in the UFC who appeared about 4 years after Yang Dong-yi.
A fighter who refrains from ceremonies to commemorate the ‘1029 disaster’
Park Jun-yong, who was active as a swimmer during his school days and started mixed martial arts after being discharged from the military, accumulated 10 wins and 3 losses in small and medium-sized organizations in Korea, Japan, and Russia before the UFN157 tournament held in China Ahead of that, he signed a contract with the UFC. Of course, at the time, the evaluation was that it was a recruitment ‘to match the assortment’ to gain the attention of Asian fighting fans, and in fact, Jun-yong Park lost to Anthony Hernandez in the second round in his Octagon debut match.
However, Park Jun-yong did not get frustrated and steadily improved his skills, defeating Marc-Andre Barriolt, John Phillips, and Tarpon Nzuki in a row, and succeeded in reversing the atmosphere with three consecutive victories. In particular, after beating Nchuki from Cameron, who boasted a record of 5 victories at the time, he gave a witty answer that he learned boxing while watching Daniel Cormier’s video during an interview. Joon-yong Park suffered his first KO loss in October 2021 against Gregory Rodriguez, but earned a bonus for a hot fight. 메이저사이트
Park Jun-yong, who won a decision victory over Eric Anders in May 2022, won his first submission victory in seven fights after entering the UFC against Joseph Hobbs on October 30 of that year. However, as soon as the game was over, Park Jun-yong sent a sign to the excited corner asking him to refrain from expressing emotions, rather than enjoying the joy of his first submission victory. This is because October 29, the day before the game was held, was the day when the tragic ‘1029 Disaster’ occurred in Korea, the home country.
Russia’s Dennis Tultulin, whom he met at the Road to UFC event on the 5th, was also unable to compete with Park Jun-yong. From the beginning of the game, Park Joon-yong took the top position with a takedown following a low tackle, then finished the game lightly with an elbow attack and a rear naked choke. Park Jun-yong, who refrained from the ceremony this time, worried about the fainting Tultuline, called Michael Bisping, an interviewer who retired in 2018, as the opponent he wanted to fight next in an interview after the match, making Bisping laugh out loud.
The lineage of leading Korean UFC fighters, which has been passed down to ‘Stun Gun’ Dong-hyun Kim and ‘Korean Zombie’ Chan-seong Jung, is in danger of being cut off due to Choi Doo-ho’s sluggishness and long hiatus, and Jung Da-un’s rather slow growth. However, Park Jun-yong, who has won 6 wins out of 8 matches since his UFC debut, including 2 consecutive finish victories, while playing in the middleweight division, where competition is not easy, and has a ‘concept’ that does not forget the situation in his home country while fighting abroad, Park Jun-yong is a new UFC sign in Korea. There is no inferiority at all to be called a fighter.