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Check out who scooped up an extra $50,000 for their performance at UFC Busan.
The latter half of the main card of UFC Fight Night: Korean Zombie vs. Edgar delivered a heck of a lot of action and some huge finishes. The night ended with five stoppages. One was a submission and the rest were TKOs. So there was a decent amount of options for the UFC powers to choose from.
Here are the fighters who received the ceremonial sprinkling of cash from their billionaire bosses.
Fight of the Night: Dooho Choi vs. Charles Jourdain
Oezdemir vs. Rakic was an intriguing and close fight that had lots of action and a good dose of body horror, but in the end this award goes to Charles Jourdain and Dooho Choi. Although their fight didn’t last longer than two rounds, it was a thrilling back and forth contest.
The first round was close, but it felt as though the ‘Korean Superboy’ probably had the best of it. He caught Jourdain with a few stiff shots, one of which resulted in a knockdown. During his post-fight interview the Quebecer admitted that, in this round, he was “rocked” for the first time in his career. But despite the assault from Choi, ‘Air’ Jourdain was still impressive; peppering Choi with body kicks and jumping knees. And, right at the death of the round, Jourdain actually dropped Choi with a crisp left hand.
The second round saw Choi make the ultimately terrible decision of leaving his hands low as he walked towards Jourdain and tried to score a big knockout punch. At first he was able to rip a few punches to Jourdain’s body and come within inches of landing the haymaker he needed, but Jourdain fought smart and blocked the stuff that could have ended his night. Choi’s defense was reliant solely on his ability to move his head out of way of danger. It wasn’t enough. After having his head snapped back with a jab, Choi bit down and came forwards. Jourdain caught him coming in with a two punch combo. That put Choi down and a few ground strikes ended the fight.
After the fight Jourdain begged “Uncle Dana” for $50,000 so he could move out of his parent’s house. He got his wish and I hope he’s able to move out, though — as someone familiar with the housing market in Canada — it might take a bit more than that to escape the basement.
Performances of the Night: Chan Sung Jung & Alexandre Pantoja
No duh. Of course the Korean Zombie was going to get a bonus for what he did tonight. He had Edgar in trouble early. After some typical feeling out Jung cracked Edgar with a short left hook. Edgar reeled from the blow. It looked as if the fight would end right there, especially after Jung swarmed all over him. But Edgar’s toughness paired with Jung’s patience meant that the fight would go at least a couple more minutes.
On the ground Jung tried to choke Edgar out, but the former champ was too wise for it. Jung switched to ground and pound, which probably would have ended the fight, had his opponent been so rugged. Edgar ended up slipping out the back of Jung and then made it to his feet. Unfortunately for him, that was probably the worst place for him to be. Jung teed off on him like he was a heavy bag, leaving referee Marc Goddard no choice but to call it off. It was a well-earned win and bonus that probably sets TKZ up for another run towards title contender-ship.
The other bonus goes to Alexandre Pantoja, who scored a vicious knockout over Matt Schnell. The Mexican flyweight came a long way for this fight, so at least now he’ll have enough money to cover the flights and accommodation for his corners and pay off his training camp (just barely). In his fight with Schnell, Pantoja was aggressive from the outset, wobbling his opponent, hunting him down and putting him out with an enormous counter right hand.
Announced Attendance: 10,651.