A February 4th UFC Fight Night in Seoul, South Korea was left off the first quarter schedule after Jung was unable to headline the card due to his shoulder.
An unannounced UFC Fight Night event set for February 4th, 2023 in Seoul, South Korea is already taking some hits as “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung has revealed he’s too injured to fight on it.
Jung is one of the most popular Korean fighter to come out of the country and he was the likely headliner for the event in February. Unfortunately, a bad shoulder injury will keep him from doing anything but showing up as a spectator. In a new Instagram post, Jung shared a gnarly looking x-ray of his shoulder and a lengthy message for his fans.
“I dislocated my shoulder collarbone and am unable to fight in February,” he wrote in Korean. “As someone who has always said that managing to avoid injuries is a skill, I feel that I am still lacking a lot.”
“This Seoul match was very important to me and I wanted to improve the quality of the Seoul card,” he continued. “For the first time while in the UFC, I rejected my opponent. And on December 2nd, I gave the names of two lightweight names and one featherweight contender who was ranked higher than the fighters they had offered. In the end, I requested players who could be more popular in Korea. It was a name that everyone would rave about.”
“I could see how much the UFC wanted to hold the Seoul fight. Depending on the opponent, I even said that it would be okay if I moved up to lightweight. Since December 2nd, [negotiations] have been going on like this, and I must have been a little too motivated. On December 7th, during wrestling training, my shoulder bone was dislocated.”
“Other than explaining the past, all I have to say is that I’m sorry to everyone,” Jung wrote. “What’s the point of saying this when I’m injured anyway? I’m a fan who deeply loves martial arts right now, but I wanted to let fans like me know the truth rather than making them believe in contradictory or exaggerated words.”
“If you curse about me being injured, know this situation is very difficult for me too. And if the Korean event is canceled due to my injury, I am very sorry to the Korean players who lost the opportunity to compete in front of family and friends.”
The UFC recently released a schedule for the first quarter of 2023 that featured a lengthy list of events through to the end of March. Not included in the list: the February 4th UFC Fight Night in Seoul, South Korea. That certainly lends credence to the fear Jung has that the UFC may simply cancel the card outright and wait until “The Korean Zombie” is ready to compete before returning to the country.
Jung has been with the UFC since 2011 but has only fought in his home country once for the promotion: in 2019 he TKO’d Frankie Edgar in Busan, South Korea. Jung’s last fight with the UFC was a TKO loss to Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 273 in April 2022, and interestingly enough he went into that bout with shoulder issues as well.
Here’s hoping “The Korean Zombie” has a speedy recovery, and that South Korea gets another event headlined by the exciting featherweight later in 2023.