Chan-Sung Jung: Becoming the Korean Zombie
Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images
There aren’t many fighters in UFC history that remained successful long-term with a reckless and wild fighting style. It’s a story we’ve all heard before, the one of the wild beast who outlasts anyone in foreign countries or in lower organizations, then gets schooled and shut down once they join the UFC. But some others stay true to their fighting style and the way they express themselves in the cage. Those legends seek to finish their opponent, there is no such thing as winning on points in their mind. The contest must be stopped for the victory to be deserved.
The Korean Zombie is one of those rare fighters. No matter what happened in his violent MMA career, he never stopped moving forward and looking to take his opponent’s soul by any means necessary. In his last ten fights, Chan-Sung Jung went the distance once, when he lost a split decision to Leonard Garcia at WEC 48. This fight is perhaps the craziest, wildest three round fight in WEC history. To this day, the Korean’s record is 15 victories (8 submissions; 5 KOs) and 5 losses (2 by KO, 1 by injury, 2 by decision). He has seven fights in the UFC (5-2) and received seven post-fight bonuses. That’s rare, only Justin Gaethje can match that ratio.
This Saturday, Chan-Sung Jung will fight Frankie Edgar in Busan. So, if you’re hungry for violence and can’t wait until the fights start, I’d suggest you come along with me while I take a look at the most violent featherweight to ever grace the octagon.
SENGOKU ZOMBIE
Chan-Sung Jung had his first six pro MMA fights in Korea and finished five of them before the end of the second round. He then signed for DREAM, the Japanese organization working to replace the void of PRIDE FC. He ended up winning the two fights he took, the second via 17-second knockout. He opened the fight with a head kick and a series of 1-2s, which were blocked by his opponent. Jung threw an inside leg kick followed by a quick right hand that was parried, but while his victim was busy parrying the right hand, he never realized that in the process Chan-Sung shifted to southpaw and covered enough distance to land a right hook, then a left on the chin that ended the fight. The Zombie changed his rhythm and intensity in a heartbeat, and this small trick was just enough to close the show.
At the time Chan-Sung Jung was 21 years old, but he was already quickly learning a lot of traps and set ups that helped him get the fight he wanted. That’s something people often miss when they watch wild fighters that constantly move forward. Zombie never fights on the same beat or repeats the same combo over and over, he has a great understanding of changing patterns.
After this quick victory he entered the 2009 Sengoku featherweight Grand Prix. In the first round he faced Shintaro Ishiwatari, who had his entire career in Japan, he fought Kyoji Horiguchi twice and currently competes in RIZIN, where he beat Ulka Sasaki last summer. Zombie started this fight at a crazy pace, at the risk of leaving himself vulnerable at times when shifting with his chin still fairly high. After being countered a few times by the skilled southpaw, The Zombie switched stances and stayed on the outside, trying to get reads on Shintaro, but without great success. However, once he started shifting again and making the Japanese athlete fight on the backfoot, he knocked him down with a big left hook on the chin. Jung was really chasing Ishiwatari at this point as he almost fell down with his opponent when the left landed. The Zombie did some work on the ground and almost secured the crucifix position, but Ishiwatari managed to escape this dangerous spot.
With only a minute left, the Zombie was rocked by a beautiful left hook, but Jung wasn’t the type to run away from adversity. Right away, he threw his left hook over Ishiwatari’s right hand. It was Ishiwatari this time who was in big trouble, and the Zombie came for him, throwing strikes that backed him up against the ropes where he lost his balance. That’s where Chan-Sung Jung saw the finish coming. As soon as Ishiwatari started to get back up, Jung slipped to his back, put the hooks in and then dove onto his back with the choke in at the same time. The brave Ishiwatari tried to fight the hands to escape the choke, but against such a skilled and determined finisher, it was hopeless. Bas Rutten and his broadcast partner, who made fun of his Zombie nickname and his style all night long, had nothing bad to say once Ishiwatari tapped.
At this point in his career, the Zombie showed his capacity to finish fights and some solid striking based on his taekwondo and kickboxing background. However, his defense was still pretty poor. The slips were already there, but he’d back up in a straight line and often didn’t block strikes. The risks he took on the feet made many wonder how he would deal with a solid wrestler who would shoot under his wild punches. As it turned out, takedown defense wasn’t very good yet, he already was quite skilled on the ground. His next opponent, Masanori Kanehara, after being stung a few times, took The Zombie to the ground but never managed to pass that half guard. Soon after, Kanehara caught a single leg after being hit with a knee to the body, then switched off to a double leg that got Jung to the ground, but in full guard. Jung never let him work and started throwing punches off his back until he got a foot on the hips and pushed back Kanehara, who left his guard to stand up. Zombie didn’t waste a second to throw a series of upkicks that made it very difficult for Kanehara to get back to the guard. A right kick to the face allowed Jung to free his hips and get back up when he tried to reverse the position.
That fight was awesome, non stop action from the Zombie. He’s simply willing to compete wherever the fight goes. Whether it’s on the feet, in the clinch or from his back, Jung is obsessed with staying active and doing damage. In this bout, he threw a lot of knees in the clinch even though they often led to him getting taken down. That’s not something that worried him, due to his all-around game. The Japanese rules allowing a diversity of ground strikes were absolutely perfect for the Zombie to express his violent fighting style.
From this position, Chan-Sung landed so many kicks and punches and it was Kanehara who was always on the edge of being submitted or hurt. We can also appreciate how educated Zombie is in this beautiful armbar attempt. As soon as he set up his legs and catch the arm, Kanehara used his feet to hold the Zombie’s head away and stop him from breaking the grip. So, the Korean brought his feet towards him in order to get better control on the grip so that he can use his right hand to free his head from Masanori’s leg. Once he got free he dipped his head, broke the grip easily and went for the armbar. That was fast and nasty but Kanehara managed to get out of it.
THE AMERICAN MARKET
After losing a controversial decision in that amazing fight with Kanehara, Zombie got one more victory before signing with the WEC. At this point of his career he was already an all offense fighter, dangerous from everywhere and his “zombie” reputation was only growing worldwide. His first fight in the United States truly put him on the map. At WEC 48, he fought Leonard Garcia in a brutal three-round war. That fan-friendly fight is very entertaining, but from an analysis standpoint, it was more a question of will than skill.
The Korean Zombie did what always did, moved forward and threw wild combos while Garcia searched for that one big punch. Zombie’s chin held up extremely well once again, he showed his almost superhuman capacity to fight while being badly hurt. After all, since the beginning of his career, he always won the wild exchanges he took part in after getting clipped. His incredible volume should have won him the fight, but he lost via split decision.
After that night, everybody knew who The Korean Zombie was. There was one question in every fan’s mind, “How long can this guy fight like that ? Who is going to crack that chin for good?” A rematch was discussed, but Jung ended up fighting George Roop, who entered that fight as a big underdog. It’s fair to say that most people just saw him as a lamb being sent to the slaughter, a sacrifice for a hungry zombie.
However, that fight did not go according to plan. Chan-Sung Jung struggled immensely against Roop’s length. Roop fought long behind his jab and 1-2. The Korean then slowly walked him down and found some success in countering Roop’s jab, and landing a few kicks to the body. Even when he had success cutting the octagon, he fell just short on the rare blitz. In round 2, he touched Roop several times in a nice flurry, but the American fighter did a good job and escaped pretty easily from the dangerous spot. Even though the Zombie didn’t get much going offensively, he did improve his defense. He blocked a lot more than we were used to seeing. It wasn’t enough to protect him from a massive left high kick in the second round that sent him unconscious to the ground.
That was it, the young, wild 23 year old fighter was finally knocked out and was now 0-2 in America. Everything moves so fast in MMA and the once hyped prospect from Korea was reduced to the typical “not good enough for highest level”, or ‘this fighting style will always be subject to this”. If you’re a fan of Justin Gaethje or Tony Ferguson, you probably heard these unfounded conclusions a thousand times. They must have forgotten that zombies are tough to kill.
THE KOREAN ZOMBIE 2.0
Six months after losing to Roop, he made his UFC debut and was offered a chance to get revenge against Leonard Garcia. Zombie trained at Team Alpha Male for this fight with Urijah Faber. He promised to the fans that this time, judges won’t be necessary because he will finish “The bad boy”. This fight was a big do or die moment for his career, as a loss would certainly lead to being cut by the UFC. Zombie opened that fight cautiously, taking his time beating up Garcia’s lead leg. What caused Zombie some trouble in the past was his weakness in blocking strikes coming to his right side (he kept his right hand low while looking to counter). He showed some early signs of having corrected that bad habit in round 1.
Beautiful lead elbow to catch Garcia as he was moving forward. Zombie also moved his head off the center line and kept his right hand glued to his face as he exited the pocket. A few seconds later he slipped and parried (with the right hand) Garcia’s jab then threw a right hand uppercut and a left hook that missed, but he used it to escape the pocket on his right side with his high guard once again. He then took Garcia down easily with a nice foot sweep. He then completely dominated Garcia on the ground and won Round 1.
Jung opened round 2 like he did round 1, beating Garcia’s lead leg and taking his chances left and right until the last two minutes of the round, where he pushed the pace a bit higher. Jung landed a big flying knee on Garcia then both men exchanged bombs in the pocket, but this time Jung’s defensive awareness saved him from unnecessary trouble and he quickly got Garcia on his back when both men exchanged kicks. In the guard of Garcia, Jung managed to post up easily to land some nasty, violent elbows on the Bad Boy who then offered his back to the Zombie. With both hooks in, Chan-Sung controlled Garcia’s back and rolled to get his own back against the canvas. Garcia was focused on trying to break Jung’s grip, but let the Korean hook his left leg and set up a twister in a heartbeat. With only a second left in the round, Garcia tapped out.
What a masterful performance by the Korean Zombie. That’s how you respond to detractors. This was the first twister submission in UFC history. He barely got touched in this fight and he showed one more time what a tremendous finisher he is.
This masterclass from the South Korean put him right back in the mix, he called out Mark Hominick for his next fight, offering to face him in his native land of Toronto, Canada. Hominick’s last fight was an amazing five rounder against Jose Aldo Jr. Before to that he beat Leonard Garcia and knocked out George Roop, back to back.
Many thought that Chan-Sung would take Hominick to the ground due to Hominick’s great striking skills, but the Zombie knocked him out cold in seven seconds. Stunning. Hominick actually targeted that right side of Jung, which always used to give him problems, with a lead left hook. But Chan-Sung Jung wasn’t there to be hit and landed a bomb of a right hand that knocked down the Canadian, the following four punches to the chin of a dazed Hominick ended the show. Zombie learned a great number of lessons from that George Roop defeat and was now ready to face Dustin “The Diamond” Poirier for a number one contender fight.
A heavy handed southpaw, Dustin Poirier was likely to cause problems for the Zombie. It was a brilliant back and forth fight. It was clear that Zombie improved defensively, but this fight reminded people that the Zombie will never back down from a scrap, and that he would never lose a battle of wills.
The first round had some fun grappling exchanges in which the Zombie capitalized the most, as he landed one big elbow on Dustin’s head that opened a cut on his hairline. Dustin kept fighting and managed to sweep Chan-Sung, who eventually managed to get up with his back against the cage. Poirier landed some big combos on the Korean, who ate them like it was nothing.
In round 2, Chan-Sung showed off his improvements, not only winning most grappling situations but also the striking exchanges. After chewing up Dustin’s lead leg, he started having success countering the Diamond. He used the clinch to land a series of uppercuts and knees that brutalized Dustin, who timed one of the Korean’s knees to shoot a takedown. But the Zombie reversed it and ended up in full mount! The rest of the round was Dustin doing an amazing job at surviving an endless chain of submissions, from armbars to triangles, back to armbars, over and over. Dustin bravely survived but that cost him a lot of energy.
Tired or not, Dustin gave a good effort in round 3 and started to get his range, landing a lot of good straight lefts that bothered Jung. Zombie started to slow down and as he got tired, he became lazy and sloppy, not to mention flat footed. He mostly just slipped and parried, with average success. It cost him some exchanges but he adapted very well to the situation by going to the body. The broadcast team missed it a little bit, but the Zombie did great body work on the Diamond in this round.
This was another new tool in the game of the Korean. One more deadly weapon. Through the years he really mastered his fighting style and used every facet possible. Finally, in round 4 Chan-Sung Jung rocked Dustin with a leaping uppercut and while Dustin shot for his life, he set up that deep D’arce choke and won the fight. Jung earned two bonuses - Fight of the Night and Submission of the Night.
The Korean Zombie then got to fight Jose Aldo Jr. for the UFC featherweight title in Rio. For the first three rounds the champion completely shut down the contender. What a difficult task that was to beat Jose Aldo in his hometown. Chan-Sung never managed to set up his jab or to get in the clinch, he had to fight Aldo’s fight. Aldo mixed it up so well, changing patterns, keeping Chan guessing, he even got a beautiful takedown in Round 2 and spend some time in top position without any fear of the Zombie’s dangerous ground game. At the end of round 3, The Korean tried to get some decent work in, catching Jose with a beautiful left hook, but in round 4 he injured his shoulder while throwing a punch. He tried to put his shoulder back together but was too diminished, he was finished by the champion. Frustrating to watch.
THE RETURN
After losing to Aldo, his bad luck continued as he pulled out of a fight against Akira Corassani due to a new injury. In October of 2014, Chan Jung Sung announced that he was starting his mandatory military service and his team confirmed that he will resume fighting at the end of the two years.
On February 4th, 2017, three and a half years since his last fight, he made his awaited return when he took on Dennis Bermudez in the main event of UFC Fight Night 104. There were so many questions about the layoff, did he lose a step? Did he improve? Would there be ring rust? Hearing “Zombie” by The Cranberries as the Korean walked out to the octagon gave me goosebumps.
Once again, The Korean answered everyone when he knocked out the #9 ranked featherweight inside three minutes. Zombie ate a big overhand from “The Menace” early but took it well and stayed composed, walking down the New Yorker, looking for an opening. Zombie stopped a few takedown attempt from Bermudez, during which Dennis’ head stayed on the center line. Zombie saw that from a mile away, and he perfectly timed a big uppercut as Bermudez was changing levels. The uppercut dropped the New Yorker and a couple of follow-up punches ended the fight. The Korean Zombie was back. No doubt about that. He fought a bit more cautiously, waiting to land something big, and it didn’t take him long. This was only the second time in 22 fights that Dennis Bermudez was knocked out. Big statement.
After this perfect comeback fight, Chan-Sung Jung was scheduled to face future Hall of Famer Frankie Edgar at UFC Fight Night 139, where they would celebrate the 25th anniversary of the UFC. Unfortunately, The Answer had to pull out of the fight and young rising prospect Yair Rodriguez replaced him. Yair did a great job at piecing up Chan-Sung’s lead leg, but the Korean had some success in the clinch, too, mostly with his uppercut. The Zombie’s reflexes were on point, as he slipped and countered the fast young Mexican. Jung used his jab very well and kept interrupting Yair Rodriguez, who could never get going.
Chan-Sung Jung parrying and countering Yair in Round 1. His footwork and his timing on counters keeps improving fight after fight. He also now possesses a very educated jab.
In round 3, Yair switched to southpaw and this allowed him to land that nasty body kick and a good number of straight left hands. In response, The Korean Zombie started to move forward a bit more and shot for takedowns, but Yair’s takedown defense held up well. Possibly because the fight took place at altitude in Denver, Yair started to slow down at the end of round 3, while the Zombie’s cardio was on point, he was winning this fight on volume.
In round 4, the Zombie landed two big right hands that rocked Yair badly, but the Mexican has got a chin on him, along with excellent recovery ability. Overall this was a solid performance for Jung over a wild, impressive young prospect. Both men also gave each other a lot of respect during the back and forth, probably to catch their breath, too. Round 5 was another round for the Korean, who was about to win an unanimous decision until the dramatic ending of the fight.
As he shifted to land some more damage on the already busted up Mexican, Yair landed a back elbow right on the chin of the Zombie, who fell down face first like he was struck by lightning. Unreal. Knockout of the Year, 2018. Chang-Sung Jung stayed inert on the ground for a long time. This image was scary, but it should not erase Chan-Sung’s good performance.
After that incredible setback, The Korean Zombie came back in June 2019 to face another young brilliant rising contender by the name of Renato Moicano. It was the fifth main event in a row for the Korean. During his walk out, Michael Bisping on the broadcast team said, “We call him the Zombie, but don’t get it wrong, he has tremendous technique. It’s the fact that it’s the technique combined with the desire to finish every fight. Through the years he’s become very tactical and he still believes he can be a champion one day.”
The violent featherweight simply destroyed Moicano in less than a minute. Since his comeback in 2017, he showed us glimpses of the improvements he made as a counter puncher. Well this night in June he landed a bomb of a counter right hand to the chin of Renato and quickly ended the fight on the ground.
The way he shifted his weight from the right hand to the following left hook is amazing. He also baited Moicano into throwing the jab.
After his victory in June, he was supposed to fight Brian Ortega in Busan, South Korea. Ortega pulled out and a former UFC lightweight champion replaced him. The fight we were supposed to have in Denver last year is happening tomorrow and if The Korean Zombie beats Frankie Edgar, he will be very close to a title shot. I personally fancy the Zombie in that fight as he’s more than capable of grapple with Edgar, and on the feet he has become so sharp and aware defensively that I just don’t see Frankie having much success.
But, in a fight with two tough warriors like them, anything can happen.
Don’t miss UFC Busan!