The “Korean Zombie” Chung, 36, is a nationality- and gender-bending inspiration for a junior mixed martial artist who trains with him.
The T-Mobile Arena (20,000 capacity) in Paradise, Nevada, USA, will host UFC Fight Night 227 on Sept. 17. Tracy Cortes (30), ranked 14th in the women’s flyweight division (-57 kg), will face Jasmine Jasudavicius (34-Canada).
Chung concluded her mixed martial arts career with a UFC Fight Night 225 main event knockout of former featherweight champion Max Holloway (32-USA) on Aug. 26 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in front of 12,263 fans.
Cortes is a former “Fight Ready” teammate of Chan Sung Jung. In a pre-UFC Fight Night 227 video interview with MK Sports, she said, “I almost cried. I think everyone who watched the Korean Zombie’s retirement fight felt the same way, but it was really emotional.”
Fight Ready in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA, is a prestigious gym that has produced four UFC champions: heavyweight (-120 kg) and light heavyweight (-93 kg) Jon Jones (36), bantamweight (-61 kg) and flyweight Henry Cejudo (36), flyweight Daveson Figueiredo (36-Brazil), and women’s strawweight (-52 kg) Zhang Weili (34-China).
“He was humble and polite, far from arrogant and disrespectful,” says Cortes. He trained hard and always looked great in the cage, and you can never say a bad thing about him (even if someone did it on purpose).”
Chung made Korean sports history with his UFC featherweight title reign from 2013-2022. His 10 consecutive UFC main events since 2012 is also a feat that will be difficult for a South Korean mixed martial arts fighter to replicate.
Cortes summarized Chung’s career in the U.S. by saying, “Every time he stepped into the Octagon, he bravely left it all on the line and inspired the crowd and viewers. He showed mixed martial artists that they should aspire to fight and never back down.”
Chung’s official UFC ranking was #3 in 2013. Including champions, he was the fourth ranked fighter. According to Fight Matrix, a mixed martial arts ranking system, he rose to No. 3 in the UFC featherweight division (No. 2 without the champion) in the second quarter of 2020.
Having his first and second peaks seven years apart is another remarkable aspect of Chung’s career, which is why The Fight Matrix ranks him as the 22nd greatest featherweight in history, even when expanding its scope to include not just the UFC but mixed martial arts as a whole.
According to data released by Nielsen Korea on Aug. 26, the cable channel of UFC Fight Night 225, which included Chung’s final fight, was the fourth-largest in the country and the third-largest in the Seoul metropolitan area.
On the same day, the KBO League’s Hanwha Eagles-KIA Tigers game was ranked sixth in the nation and the SSG Landers-Dusan Bears game was ranked ninth in the metropolitan area. Mixed martial arts competitions were more popular than baseball.메이저놀이터
Chung has been busy in his post-retirement life, including ▲ finding mixed martial arts gems through his YouTube account with 1.08 million subscribers ▲ preparing to open his third gym as a coach ▲ launching a Korean zombie character campaign with GS25, a convenience store brand that sells energy drinks and other products ▲ and opening his first store in collaboration with franchise company Dosan Beer.