Three months after his disappointing loss to Brian Ortega, Chan Sung Jung is opening up on how he dealt with the defeat.
In October of 2020, Chan Sung Jung had the biggest fight of his career against Brian Ortega.
Not only was the fight a title eliminator with the winner getting a shot at the UFC featherweight title, but the two had engaged in a highly visible feud that made the fight personal for Jung. Unfortunately, things did not go his way. A massive spinning elbow in the second round nearly knocked him out, and from there the fight was a literal blur for “The Korean Zombie.”
The final score: 50-45 Ortega on all three judges’ scorecards.
“I’m just completely embarrassed / ashamed of myself,” he wrote on Instagram after the fight. “But I really want to thank you guys for rooting for me and I’m really sorry.”
If Jung sounded depressed about the loss, it’s because he was. In a recent interview with SBS Plus, the Korean fighter detailed just how bad things got for him following the fight.
“The thought that my career has crashed brought me down to rock bottom,” he said (via South China Morning Post). He reached out for psychiatric help upon his return but digging himself out of the hole wasn’t easy .He went into a binge eating spiral, gaining 40 pounds.
It’s hard to tell where he’s at now, but things aren’t so bad for “The Korean Zombie” in the grand scheme of things. His fanbase is largely ride or die. He’s still ranked #5 at featherweight and probably one good win away from being right back in the 145 pound contender’s circle.
Brian Ortega managed to bounce back from a brutal one sided loss to then-champ Max Holloway. Just because he bounced back against Chan Sung Jung doesn’t mean he couldn’t take some inspiration from that to come back better than ever.
Jung doesn’t currently have an upcoming fight booked, but we’ll definitely let you know when that changes.