Anthony Pettis Out of UFC 163 With Knee Injury; ‘Korean Zombie’ to Replace Him Against Jose Aldo

(Replace the number ‘162’ with ‘163’, and this promo is still pretty damn relevant. / Props: TheSuperactiontv)

Anthony Pettis‘s divisional line-cutting has apparently angered the vengeful MMA Gods, who have struck down the crowd-pleasing striker with a knee injury. UFC president Dana White just confirmed the bad news, saying that Pettis is officially out of his scheduled featherweight title fight against Jose Aldo, which was slated to go down at UFC 163, August 3rd at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro. Pettis described the injury as a “small tear in my meniscus,” but didn’t give a specific timetable on his return.

So that’s the bad news. The good news is, Pettis has already been replaced by a title-challenger who’s actually earned a crack at the 145-pound belt: Chan Sung Jung, better known to us Westerners as “The Korean Zombie.” Jung was originally scheduled to face Ricardo Lamas in a likely #1 contender bout at UFC 162 next month, but has now been fast-tracked to a title fight in order to rescue the UFC 163 main event.

“TKZ” is 3-0 in the UFC, with incredible stoppage victories against Leonard Garcia (via twister submission), Mark Hominick (via seven-second KO), and Dustin Poirier (via d’arce choke, in a Fight of the Year candidate last May).

So who’s your pick in Aldo vs. Zombie? And is this a more interesting matchup to you than Aldo vs. Pettis?


(Replace the number ’162′ with ’163′, and this promo is still pretty damn relevant. / Props: TheSuperactiontv)

Anthony Pettis‘s divisional line-cutting has apparently angered the vengeful MMA Gods, who have struck down the crowd-pleasing striker with a knee injury. UFC president Dana White just confirmed the bad news, saying that Pettis is officially out of his scheduled featherweight title fight against Jose Aldo, which was slated to go down at UFC 163, August 3rd at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro. Pettis described the injury as a “small tear in my meniscus,” but didn’t give a specific timetable on his return.

So that’s the bad news. The good news is, Pettis has already been replaced by a title-challenger who’s actually earned a crack at the 145-pound belt: Chan Sung Jung, better known to us Westerners as “The Korean Zombie.” Jung was originally scheduled to face Ricardo Lamas in a likely #1 contender bout at UFC 162 next month, but has now been fast-tracked to a title fight in order to rescue the UFC 163 main event.

“TKZ” is 3-0 in the UFC, with incredible stoppage victories against Leonard Garcia (via twister submission), Mark Hominick (via seven-second KO), and Dustin Poirier (via d’arce choke, in a Fight of the Year candidate last May).

So who’s your pick in Aldo vs. Zombie? And is this a more interesting matchup to you than Aldo vs. Pettis?