Chan Sung Jung opens up about his loss to Brian Ortega.
Not many fighters discuss the mental strain high level competition can take on them, but Chan Sung Jung was willing to open up about his struggles before and after his last bout.
“The Korean Zombie” suffered a tough defeat against Brian Ortega in his last outing, and he admitted to having struggled both before and after the October 2020 contest. A UFC title shot was on the line that night, and the 33-year-old said on a Korean TV show that he only slept one and a half hours on two days before the contest.
The bout didn’t go his way, and he lost by a one-sided decision, saying he doesn’t “remember anything from the second, third and fourth rounds.”
While there’s really no shame in losing to a guy like Ortega, especially after getting badly hurt very early, Jung admitted to taking the loss extremely hard.
“The thought that my career has crashed brought me down to rock bottom,” Jung said (translation via SCMP). He also revealed that he “ate without control for a month” and put on over 40 lbs of weight.
Jung says he has been seeing a psychiatrist to help him deal with things, and seems to have lost most of this bad weight already.
Zombie normally competes at 145 lbs, and on a separate video in his channel, Jung says the heaviest he’s ever been was 85 kg (187 lbs).
He has yet to book his next bout, but the exciting KO artist is still ranked in the top 5, and will likely always have a relatively big following due to his fan-friendly fighting style.
Zombie has the most fight night bonuses in featherweight history, and has highlight reel finishes over the likes of Dustin Poirier, Frankie Edgar, Renato Moicano, and Mark Hominick. His only losses in the past decade have been to top level fighters Jose Aldo and Brian Ortega, along with that last second comeback from the #4 ranked Yair Rodriguez.