Eddie Cha says Korean Zombie is out to prove that he’s more than just a brawler inside the Octagon when he faces Dan Ige at UFC Vegas 29.
Chan Sung Jung, otherwise known by his intimidating moniker “Korean Zombie,” is set to headline this weekend’s Fight Night card against fellow featherweight contender “50K.”
In an interview with MMA News, the former title challenger’s coach Eddie Cha suggested Zombie is looking to push beyond his reputation as one of the sport’s best brawlers.
“We have a couple things that we’re really trying to focus on right now. One is footwork. We talked about adjustment to speed and stuff like that. But like I think I said before in a couple other interviews is that Zombie’s wrestling and ground game is so underrated. People just think of him as a brawler and things like that as a striker aspect, but he can do it all.”
Cha suggested we’ll likely see a wider range of Zombie’s MMA skills come to light in his tenth UFC bout.
“He’s looking to open up his whole offense this fight. We’ve been preparing for Ortega, Frankie Edgar. We’ve wrestled so much in those camps, defensive wrestling, things like that. So I feel like everything’s on point.”
Despite Ige laying out his plan to out-brawl Zombie when the pair meet inside the Octagon, it seems the Korean might look to counter that by altering his usual fight plan.
Korean Zombie will be looking to rebound this weekend after a decision loss to Brian Ortega in the UFC Fight Island 6 headliner last October. The defeat meant Zombie missed out on the chance to challenge Alexander Volkanovski for the featherweight belt.
Instead, the 145-pound veteran will look to stake his claim for a second opportunity at UFC gold against the rising Dan Ige on Saturday.
“Dynamite” returned to the win column in about as impressive fashion as he could have earlier this year. After a main event loss to Calvin Kattar in 2020, Ige rebounded with a brutal 22-second knockout against Gavin Tucker in March.
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