When the winner of the Dustin Poirier and Chan Sung Jung bout emerges from the third UFC on Fuel TV card on May 15, they will have earned the right to face Jose Aldo for the featherweight title.
The two men are exciting to watch and they both have been defeating competition in highlight reel fashion. The only thing that could stop them is if there was someone else who had a larger following than they did or had been on a roll.
There isn’t. Aldo has run through every popular fighter and veteran that has competed at featherweight and lay claim to being the top contender. Whoever wins the fight between Jung and Poirier would be the best bet at giving him a tough fight or at the very least intriguing fans with the matchup.
The biggest potential selling point for a fight between Aldo and the victor boils down to how the fight between Jung and Poirier plays out. If both men have an unconventionally “boring” match which is technically sound, but short on fireworks, then the UFC may look somewhere else.
For someone like Chan Sung Jung who has earned the nickname “the Korean Zombie,” that doesn’t seem likely. In his last fight he was able to knock out former challenger Mark Hominick in seven seconds and the fight before that saw him face Leonard Garcia in a rematch from their 2009 Fight of the Year bout.
It ended with Jung getting the first ever twister submission in MMA history.
Poirier may not have those accolades on his resume, but he did win Submission of the Night in his last fight by getting an armbar from the mount position against Max Holloway. While he doesn’t have any other prizes to his credit, he has always made memorable matches that left fans cheering.
If both men can put on a fight that gets fans talking, the winner will be at the top of the list to face Aldo.
While neither man is as fast or technically sharp as the champion, they make thrilling fights and generate interest in their bouts.
Poirier and Jung are also both unpredictable. From Jung’s twister to Poirier’s armbar from the mount, both men are willing to come up with variations to the norm and take the risks needed to perform them. In MMA that can be the deciding factor between getting beaten and winning.
It will also get fans wondering if Jung or Poirier have what it takes to beat the champ.
After both men face each other, fans will get to know who the better risk-taker is and who will give Aldo the tougher fight.
After that, it’s up to the UFC to make the fight.
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