When Max Holloway pulled out of his UFC 272 title shot against Alexander Volkanovski, there was some question among fans whether or not “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung would be healthy enough to be a replacement option.
As it turns out, the promotion chose Jung (17-6 MMA, 7-5 UFC) as the replacement with the championship fight moved back one month to UFC 273 on April 9. According to Jung’s manager Jason House, of Iridium Sports Agency, the shoulder which Jung injured in his last fight is healed up.
There was no rushing back from injury or “sucking it up” to capitalize on the opportunity. The short-notice step-in falls exactly on the timeline they had anticipated prior to their title shot offer.
“The shoulder is good,” House told MMA Junkie on Friday. “We were planning on fighting in late April or early May, which was kind of what I was suggesting to the UFC beforehand. This opportunity came up and we’re ready to go. It’s just on a timeline a little earlier. Being at Fight Ready, being in Arizona, they have a great camp there, great facilities and amenities. We’ll be fully ready to go April 9.”
Negotiations were smooth between his agency and the promotion, House indicated. The fight was finalized within days. Short notice was no problem for Jung, who worked over eight years to get back into title challenger status after a failed bid against Jose Aldo at UFC 163.
“Before this had happened, ‘KZ’ would always tell me, ‘You don’t turn down title shots. When they call you Jason, and I’m not available, say yes.’ He’s always been very adamant about that,” House said. “With this opportunity, he became news. Really when you look at the rankings, we’re the highest-ranked fighter coming off a win. Volkanovski and KZ had had some competitive banter in the past, so I felt like we had a good shot at getting it because there is some history there. ‘KZ’ is coming off a great win and I thought it was very likely it would happen.”
Jung is currently in South Korea, but on Feb. 6 returns to Arizona to train at Fight Ready MMA, added House. Under the tutelage of coach Eddie Cha, “The Korean Zombie” presents a tough test to Volkanovski (23-1 MMA, 10-0 UFC), House predicted.
“I think there’s a few paths to victory for us,” House said. “It’s really about sitting down, studying a lot of the film on Volkanovski and seeing which ones would be most advantageous for us. His head coach Eddie Cha and I have been discussing this for the last few days now. We’re excited. We’re preparing properly by getting him the right training partners to emulate and simulate Volkanovski. I really feel that we’re going to have some advantages. KZ always does well with fighters that he has the length and size on. We believe we’ll have that this fight.”
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Manager: ‘The Korean Zombie’ shoulder good to go, UFC 273 was in line with planned return timeline
