The 5-1 Wang-Kim spent a lot of time on the amateur scene, finding almost nothing but success. The extended stay paid off as he jumped into the professional circuit and immediately made the impression of a lifetime. Less than two years after going pro, Wang-Kim and his flashy style stole the show in one of Cage Warriors’ trips to Southern California and put him on everybody’s radar.
“In the Cage Warriors fight, I kneed him in the face, he dropped and I secured the victory,” Wang-Kim explained. “I just felt calm, cool, and collected. My knee connected with his chin, he dropped, I put on the finishing touches, and it worked.”
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Don’t let the “matter-of-fact” answer fool you, if a knee didn’t land a wheel kick or Superman punch might have. Wang-Kim’s striking style is tailor-made for DWCS, where wins aren’t necessarily enough to secure your spot in the UFC – you’ve got to be must-see TV.
Thus far, neither opponents nor the spotlight has been too much for Wang-Kim. His striking is not only some of the flashiest we’ll see this season, but it’s sometimes so smooth Wang-Kim doesn’t even appear to break a sweat. Judging from Dana White’s demand for excellence in week one, he’s going to need every advantage he can get.
“As a martial artist, I try to make everything as clean and as beautiful as possible,” Wang-Kim said. “Everything that I throw, I throw with a lot of assertiveness behind it, but it’s consistent repetition that I have ingrained with years and years of hard work that I put in. Contender Series is a great spotlight, a great platform to showcase who I am to the audience base. This is a good ground to show the world who I am, who my lineage is, and my style that I’ve been cultivating for 13 years. It’s my artistic experience that I want the audience to see.”
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Winning is one of the best feelings a fighter could ask for, but long before landing his first strike to an opponent Wang-Kim was already working on honing his craft. Wang-Kim was years away from ever inflicting pain on a person when he was first starting to concern himself with the crispness and form of his striking. By the time he was “Packing the Mack” at Tuff-N-Uff he was already being compared to some of the greatest to ever suit up.