Not long after the Gunnar Nelson-Rick Story fight was announced as the headline bout of the UFC’s return to Sweden, UFC Fight Night 53 picked up a co-main event between featherweights Chan Sung Jung and Akira Corassani.
The event, which airs exclusively on Fight Pass, takes place in the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm on October 4. The European-heavy card includes a number of fighters from the host country.
For Jung, this marks his first fight since August of last year, when he was defeated by UFC Featherweight champion Jose Aldo in the headliner of UFC 163. After Jung injured his shoulder during the fight, Aldo finished off the “Korean Zombie” with strikes to retain his title.
Before the title fight, Jung was on the most impressive streak of his career. After pulling off the first-ever twister submission in the UFC on Leonard Garcia, Jung knocked out Mark Hominick in seven seconds and choked out Dustin Poirier in a Fight of the Year to earn his title shot.
As for Corassani, he has put together a solid resume since competing on The Ultimate Fighter 14. After winning a controversial split decision over Andy Ogle in their respective debuts, he was impressive against Robbie Peralta. He then took a DQ win over an overly aggressive Maximo Blanco, before getting knocked out in his most recent outing against Poirier.
This figures to be an all-out brawl between two fighters known to put themselves all out there. Not only does Corassani have a Fight of the Night under his belt against Poirier, Jung has five fight-night bonuses between his six appearances in UFC and WEC.
The winner of this fight figures to find himself up among the other title challengers in the division. They may not be the next contender to the UFC title, but they will put themselves in position to get there sooner rather than later.
Stay with Bleacher Report for continued updates on UFC Fight Night in Sweden and other upcoming cards.
Fight Card
| Welterweight | Gunnar Nelson | Rick Story |
| Featherweight | Chan Sung Jung | Akira Corassani |
| Welterweight | Nico Musoke | Alexander Yakovlev |
| Featherweight | Niklas Backstrom | Mike Wilkinson |
| Featherweight | Zubair Tuhugov | Ernest Chavez |
| Featherweight | Dennis Siver | Robert Whiteford |
| Light Heavyweight | Ilir Latifi | Jan Blachowicz |
| Welterweight | Mairbek Taisumov | Marcin Bandel |
| Middleweight | Magnus Cedenblad | Scott Askham |
| Middleweight | Tor Troeng | Krzysztof Jotko |
| Welterweight | Cathal Pendred | Gasan Umalatov |
| Welterweight | Mats Nilsson | David Bielkheden |
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