Yves Edwards isn’t afraid to admit that one loss 11 years ago still haunts him. Back in March 2006, Edwards took on Mark Hominick at UFC 58. The “Thugjitsu Master” was on a roll going into the bout. He had gone 7-1 in his last eight outings. His only loss in that span was to […]
Yves Edwards isn’t afraid to admit that one loss 11 years ago still haunts him. Back in March 2006, Edwards took on Mark Hominick at UFC 58. The “Thugjitsu Master” was on a roll going into the bout. He had gone 7-1 in his last eight outings. His only loss in that span was to […]
If you’re a relatively new MMA fan, you can be forgiven if you’re not familiar with Chan Sung Jung. After all, the man hasn’t fought since August 2013. But if you’ve been following the sport for more than five years and you don’t remember “The Korean Zombie”, you are most definitely NOT forgiven. You’re reading
If you’re a relatively new MMA fan, you can be forgiven if you’re not familiar with Chan Sung Jung. After all, the man hasn’t fought since August 2013. But if you’ve been following the sport for more than five years and you don’t remember “The Korean Zombie”, you are most definitely NOT forgiven. You’re reading my article, which is cool and all, but we can’t be friends. Sorry.
Seriously, how could you forget what the most famous Korean mixed martial artist – apologies to “The Stun Gun” and “The Korean Superboy” – did before mandatory military service tore him away from us?
In just six fights under the Zuffa banner between April 2010 and August 2013, Jung was involved in two “Fights of the Year” and produced a “Submission of the Year” that has yet to be replicated. If you need a refresher course in the kind of violence “The Korean Zombie” brings to the cage, look no further.
Jung exploded into the American MMA consciousness in his very first fight on this side of the Pacific. He was put in a prominent spot in his initial WEC foray, as he made up half of the featured prelim leading into the WEC’s lone pay-per-view event, WEC 48 (headlined by Urijah Faber and Jose Aldo). Jung was an 11-1 prospect who had already won a one-night, 16-man featherweight tournament with three submissions in Japan (I couldn’t find a highlight video for it, unfortunately). He would take on Leonard Garcia, a UFC veteran with a penchant for foregoing technique and strategy in favor getting into exciting brawls.
And did they brawl. If Jung hadn’t already earned “The Korean Zombie” moniker, he certainly would have been dubbed such after the jaw-dropping, whiplash-inducing, holy-sh*t-did-you-just-see-that inferno of a fight.
Defense was a foreign concept. Head kicks, vicious clinch knees, and salvo after salvo of wild haymakers were all on the menu. Commentator Mike Goldberg mispronounced Jung’s name on multiple occasions, but the Korean scrapper ensured that would never happen again.
Jung started the fight beautifully, knocking Garcia down in round one and blasting him with ground and pound. “Bad Boy” stormed back in the second, rocking Jung out of the gate. But, true to his name, “The Korean Zombie” was undeterred. He jumped on Garcia’s back and rolled him to the floor after a failed takedown, but couldn’t capitalize. Back on the feet, the two traded blistering combinations that would have blown away lesser men. The final round was nip and tuck as well, but Jung generally looked to get the better of the action.
In the end, though, Garcia escaped with a split decision win. The verdict was disputed, but no one was upset with Garcia. The action he and Jung produced was utterly above reproach.
Back in 2014, Chan Sung Jung shocked the MMA world by announcing that he would be leaving the sport behind to fulfill a two-year mandatory military service required in his native South Korea. Although he had spent the majority of the two years prior to that nursing various injuries, it was his final fight in the octagon — a back-and-forth battle with Jose Aldo at UFC 163 — that proved just how much of a terror he would be for 99% of the UFC’s top featherweights.
But mostly, we remember “The Korean Zombie” for the consistently epic brawls he engaged in while under both the WEC and UFC banners. Whether it was in losing efforts like his first fight against Leonard Garcia or in triumphs like his battle with Dustin Poirier, Jung quickly earned a reputation as one of the sport’s most entertaining 145ers.
With his service now coming to a close, sources close to Jung told MMAFighting that the former title challenger is looking to make his return to the cage sometime in late 2016 or early 2017. The Zombie is back, so to ring in the celebration, we’ve gathered as many of his fight videos and highlights as we were legally allowed to. Head after the jump for the full treatment.
Back in 2014, Chan Sung Jung shocked the MMA world by announcing that he would be leaving the sport behind to fulfill a two-year mandatory military service required in his native South Korea. Although he had spent the majority of the two years prior to that nursing various injuries, it was his final fight in the octagon — a back-and-forth battle with Jose Aldo at UFC 163 — that proved just how much of a terror he would be for 99% of the UFC’s top featherweights.
But mostly, we remember “The Korean Zombie” for the consistently epic brawls he engaged in while under both the WEC and UFC banners. Whether it was in losing efforts like his first fight against Leonard Garcia or in triumphs like his battle with Dustin Poirier, Jung quickly earned a reputation as one of the sport’s most entertaining 145ers.
With his service now coming to a close, sources close to Jung told MMAFighting that the former title challenger is looking to make his return to the cage sometime in late 2016 or early 2017. The Zombie is back, so to ring in the celebration, we’ve gathered as many of his fight videos and highlights as we were legally allowed to. Head after the jump for the full treatment.
First up, the fight that made Jung’s name: The 2010 Fight of the Year-winner against Leonard Garcia at WEC 48. Really, there are few words in the English language that accurately describe this fight, so we’ll just go with the first one we think of everytime we watch it: BUNGALOWS. Both men threw them, a lot, and while it was Jung who managed to consistently land them with far greater accuracy, it would be Garcia that would emerge victorious in the first of many inexplicable decision wins that “Bad Boy” would be handed.
After finding himself on the wrong end of a George Roop head kick in his next WEC fight, Jung was scooped up by the UFC during the WEC merger and immediately booked in a rematch against Garcia. It was a time when the UFC honestly attempted to do right by its fighters, crazy as it might sound, and the result was the 2011 Submission of the Year.
When Jung was paired up against Mark Hominick at UFC 140, most of us expected another classic barnburner would be added to Jung’s already prestigious record. Hominick himself had just come off a five round war with Jose Aldo — and in fact, appeared to be the fresher man when all was said and done despite having received a grapefruit-sized hematoma on his head — and hadn’t been finished inside the distance since 2008. So this being MMA and all, the fight was finished in less time than it takes to microwave a Pop Tart.
The Korean Zombie would build upon his momentum in his next fight against top-ranked featherweight Dustin Poirier (you can check out that fight here) — another fight that would earn him “Fight of the Year” honors — before facing Aldo in a title fight that would leave both competitors with more injuries than the average head-on collision.
With Jung’s return to the cage now in sight, we ask unto you, Nation: Who would you like to see him face first? Give us a shout in the comments section or on Twitter.
The basic story is this: Ludwig wants to leave Team Alpha Male in order to open his own gym in Colorado. Yesterday morning, he told Faber about his plans privately, assuring Faber that he’d stay on to complete upcoming training camps for team members. Instead of keeping things discreet, Faber posted a public ad on TeamAlphaMale.com later that day, stating that the team needed a new coach. The news was then reported on last night’s edition of UFC Tonight, and the cat was fully out of the bag.
“It wasn’t f*cking supposed to be like this, man,” Ludwig told MMAjunkie yesterday. “I’m not going to bounce on anybody’s fight camp. Then he f*cking went and told the team and did a press release before I knew. I’m like, ‘What the hell?’…I was just giving Urijah the heads up; I didn’t really have much planned. I think he kind of jumped (the gun).”
Faber confirmed that Ludwig will remain with the team until May 24th — the same day as UFC 173, which will feature Team Alpha Male fighters TJ Dillashaw and Chris Holdsworth. He also name-checked Mark Hominick, Dan Hardy, Muay Thai trainer Mark Beecher, and grappling coach Robert Follis as guys he’d like to see as Ludwig’s replacement. (Hominick already seems interested.) After the jump: Ludwig explains the strictly-business reasoning behind starting his own gym…
The basic story is this: Ludwig wants to leave Team Alpha Male in order to open his own gym in Colorado. Yesterday morning, he told Faber about his plans privately, assuring Faber that he’d stay on to complete upcoming training camps for team members. Instead of keeping things discreet, Faber posted a public ad on TeamAlphaMale.com later that day, stating that the team needed a new coach. The news was then reported on last night’s edition of UFC Tonight, and the cat was fully out of the bag.
“It wasn’t f*cking supposed to be like this, man,” Ludwig told MMAjunkie yesterday. “I’m not going to bounce on anybody’s fight camp. Then he f*cking went and told the team and did a press release before I knew. I’m like, ‘What the hell?’…I was just giving Urijah the heads up; I didn’t really have much planned. I think he kind of jumped (the gun).”
Faber confirmed that Ludwig will remain with the team until May 24th — the same day as UFC 173, which will feature Team Alpha Male fighters TJ Dillashaw and Chris Holdsworth. He also name-checked Mark Hominick, Dan Hardy, Muay Thai trainer Mark Beecher, and grappling coach Robert Follis as guys he’d like to see as Ludwig’s replacement. (Hominick already seems interested.) After the jump: Ludwig explains the strictly-business reasoning behind starting his own gym…
“I’ve been working for other businesses since I was 15, and it’s just time I do my own thing, man,” Ludwig said. “I gave Sacramento a year-and-a-half of my life and coaching. If I got hurt on this job, I would have no more income. There’s no residual income here, and I’m just at the point in my life where I’ve got to set up a residual business for myself.
“I’m still working paycheck to paycheck. I’ve got to set up a business; that’s just the smartest move. Plus, Colorado’s home. I’ve got to get my family back and get my life situated again. I’ve got to be smart about my finances, and right now, this isn’t a smart thing to do.”
“I’m still going to have an open window for them to come train with me and to bring me out for training camps and seminars and stuff,” he said of his relationship with Alpha Male. “They’re still going to be an affiliate of mine with the ‘Bang Muay Thai System.’ It’s just time to open my own business.”
Last month, Mark Hominick announced that “The Machine” has been unplugged. The Canadian striker ended his ten-year MMA career with a record of 20-12, including nine wins by KO/TKO, seven by submission, and three Fight of the Night awards during his stint in the WEC and UFC.
A former kickboxer, Hominick submitted Yves Edwards in his first Octagon appearance in 2006, and later collected victories over such notables as Jorge Gurgel, Bryan Caraway, Yves Jabouin, and Leonard Garcia. An impressive first-round TKO win over former Team Tompkins teammate George Roop in January 2011 was Hominick’s fifth win in a row, making him a fast-rising star in the UFC’s new featherweight division, and earning him a title shot against champion Jose Aldo.
Today, Hominick is the proud father of a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter — he and his wife have another girl on the way — and he is putting his experience and skill to good use at the Adrenaline Training Center in London, Ontario, Canada. He and fellow Shawn Tompkins protégé Chris Horodecki started the gym about four years ago and are working closely with Adrenaline’s burgeoning pro fighters. Hominick says he is also excited about the possibility of working as part of UFC Canada.
Just a few weeks after hanging up his little gloves, Mark “The Machine” Hominick spoke with CagePotato.com about the very best opponents he faced across a number of categories…
Strongest:Jose Aldo. It was like he had two fists in one. When he hit with his right hand, he hit like a heavyweight. And his explosiveness, that was the biggest difference, I noticed. I’m normally good with distance and being able to fade from a shot, but he can close the distance with not just speed, but with power.
Fastest:Yves Jabouin. I fought him at WEC 49. It was Fight of the Night and one of the best fights of the year. It was just a back-and-forth battle. Speed is where I normally have the advantage, and I felt he almost matched me there. It was like I was fighting a mirror image.
(Photo courtesy of Getty Images)
Last month, Mark Hominick announced that “The Machine” has been unplugged. The Canadian striker ended his ten-year MMA career with a record of 20-12, including nine wins by KO/TKO, seven by submission, and three Fight of the Night awards during his stint in the WEC and UFC.
A former kickboxer, Hominick submitted Yves Edwards in his first Octagon appearance in 2006, and later collected victories over such notables as Jorge Gurgel, Bryan Caraway, Yves Jabouin, and Leonard Garcia. An impressive first-round TKO win over former Team Tompkins teammate George Roop in January 2011 was Hominick’s fifth win in a row, making him a fast-rising star in the UFC’s new featherweight division, and earning him a title shot against champion Jose Aldo.
Today, Hominick is the proud father of a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter — he and his wife have another girl on the way — and he is putting his experience and skill to good use at the Adrenaline Training Center in London, Ontario, Canada. He and fellow Shawn Tompkins protégé Chris Horodecki started the gym about four years ago and are working closely with Adrenaline’s burgeoning pro fighters. Hominick says he is also excited about the possibility of working as part of UFC Canada.
Just a few weeks after hanging up his little gloves, Mark “The Machine” Hominick spoke with CagePotato.com about the very best opponents he faced across a number of categories…
Strongest:Jose Aldo. It was like he had two fists in one. When he hit with his right hand, he hit like a heavyweight. And his explosiveness, that was the biggest difference, I noticed. I’m normally good with distance and being able to fade from a shot, but he can close the distance with not just speed, but with power.
Fastest:Yves Jabouin. I fought him at WEC 49. It was Fight of the Night and one of the best fights of the year. It was just a back-and-forth battle. Speed is where I normally have the advantage, and I felt he almost matched me there. It was like I was fighting a mirror image.
Toughest Chin:Hatsu Hioki. We fought for five rounds [at TKO 28 in February 2007]. I hit him with some big shots, and he just kept coming.
Heaviest Hands:Jose Aldo was the first guy to really drop me in my career. I fought 25 kickboxing bouts, never got dropped — ever — and he dropped me, I think, three times in the fight. That’s how hard he hits.
Best Wrestler: Mike Brown.I fought him when I was 19 years old in a small show; I think it was in a square cage — one of those types of shows. I don’t think I even knew how to spell wrestling, let alone wrestle competitively. The pressure and skill he had was something I’d never seen before.
Best Defense:Hioki again. He’s very durable, very calculating. I kept pushing the action the whole time, and he kept coming back. That’s the kind of battle I win — the war of attrition, especially in a five-round bout — but he stayed with me the whole bout.
Best Leg Strikes: Aldo. I mean, he’s one of the best leg kickers in the game, no matter what weight class. He’s got the hips that people talk about; he can turn over those hips very fast.
Most Dangerous Submissions:Rani Yahya. He’s an Abu Dhabi world champion. I trained with him before the bout, so I knew how good he was on the ground. It was one of those fights where, if it was on the feet, I was going to knock him out, and if it was on the ground, he was going to submit me. And we both knew that.
Most Surprising Opponent: “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung. It was only a seven-second bout, but I didn’t think he had the power in his hands to knock anyone out. I had seen some of his bouts where he was in wars, trading punches — giving and taking — and he didn’t put anyone down.
Best game plan: Pablo Garza. I never thought in a million years that he’d take me down and try to hold me down for two rounds of the bout. I didn’t think he’d be able to take me down, first off, and from there keep me down.
Best Win: My most dominant win was against George Roop. There was a lot on the line. I knew going into that bout that if I won that, I’d be getting the Aldo title shot, so there was a lot of pressure. I went out there and really made a statement by knocking him out in the first round.
Worst Loss: How I ended my career, I guess. I fought for over eleven years and to go out on those terms…But I guess that’s what happens in a career, you know? It’s hard to end on a high note.
Best Overall: Aldo, there’s no question. He’s one of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters, and he shocked me a bit by throwing in his wrestling. He’s one of the best for a reason.
For past installments of our “Unforgettable” series, click here.
After over ten years as a professional mixed martial artist, UFC/WEC veteran Mark “The Machine” Hominick has retired from the sport, with a career record of 20-12. The news was announced by Hominick himself on yesterday’s edition of UFC Tonight (which is co-anchored by Leeann Tweeden now? Huh.) As Hominick explained:
“I have a young daughter, I have another daughter on the way, and I think that’s the next phase of my life, to put focus into that. Moving forward, I’m always going to be involved in this sport, this is my passion, this is what fuels me, but I think…I haven’t been able to make the same kind of sacrifices that got me to the title fight with Aldo, and I think it’s more important for me to focus on that, and again, moving on with my life as a part of mixed martial arts from the outside, I guess.”
An Ontario native and disciple of the late trainer Shawn Tompkins, Hominick first built his name in the Canadian organizations UCC and TKO, holding titles for both promotions, and earning nine victories, all by stoppage. In March 2006, Hominick was called up to the UFC for its “USA vs. Canada” card, and did his country proud by submitting Yves Edwards by triangle-armbar in the opening fight of the pay-per-view broadcast. Though a natural featherweight, Hominick won his next lightweight match in the UFC as well, out-pointing Jorge Gurgel at Ultimate Fight Night 5.
Hominick then returned to the 145-pound division and spent the next four years competing for TKO, Affliction, and the WEC — as usual, making it a point to fire off aset of push-ups in the center of the ring immediately following every match in which he wasn’t choked out or knocked cold. For an otherwise soft-spoken, non-descript-looking Canadian dude, it was Hominick’s most dramatic statement of identity, a non-verbal way of telling his opponent and the crowd that he could do this all night if he had to.
After over ten years as a professional mixed martial artist, UFC/WEC veteran Mark “The Machine” Hominick has retired from the sport, with a career record of 20-12. The news was announced by Hominick himself on yesterday’s edition of UFC Tonight (which is co-anchored by Leeann Tweeden now? Huh.) As Hominick explained:
“I have a young daughter, I have another daughter on the way, and I think that’s the next phase of my life, to put focus into that. Moving forward, I’m always going to be involved in this sport, this is my passion, this is what fuels me, but I think…I haven’t been able to make the same kind of sacrifices that got me to the title fight with Aldo, and I think it’s more important for me to focus on that, and again, moving on with my life as a part of mixed martial arts from the outside, I guess.”
An Ontario native and disciple of the late trainer Shawn Tompkins, Hominick first built his name in the Canadian organizations UCC and TKO, holding titles for both promotions, and earning nine victories, all by stoppage. In March 2006, Hominick was called up to the UFC for its “USA vs. Canada” card, and did his country proud by submitting Yves Edwards by triangle-armbar in the opening fight of the pay-per-view broadcast. Though a natural featherweight, Hominick won his next lightweight match in the UFC as well, out-pointing Jorge Gurgel at Ultimate Fight Night 5.
Hominick then returned to the 145-pound division and spent the next four years competing for TKO, Affliction, and the WEC — as usual, making it a point to fire off aset of push-ups in the center of the ring immediately following every match in which he wasn’t choked out or knocked cold. For an otherwise soft-spoken, non-descript-looking Canadian dude, it was Hominick’s most dramatic statement of identity, a non-verbal way of telling his opponent and the crowd that he could do this all night if he had to.
In 2010, Hominick won three straight WEC fights against Bryan Caraway, Yves Jabouin, and Leonard Garcia, which secured his entry into the UFC’s brand-new featherweight division. At first, everything went according to plan: Hominick scored a first-round TKO against George Roop at Fight for the Troops 2 in his UFC featherweight debut, earning a title shot against Jose Aldo in the process. And that’s when things began to fall apart.
Despite a heroic fifth-round effort against the champ, Hominick lost a crushing decision to Aldo at UFC 129 last April, leaving the cage with one of the most horrific hematomas in the history of the sport. Nevertheless, Hominick remembers the night as the greatest moment of his UFC career (!), telling UFC Tonight:
“Even though it was a loss, that fight really put me on the map. To me, it almost felt like a 15-year overnight success. You compete for so many years, almost in obscurity, and no one gets to watch, and all of a sudden I was fighting in front of 55,000 people in front of my home province for the world title, and I really put on a performance that really put me on the map as far as the mixed martial arts world. So that’s something I’ll always cherish, and I really got to show who I was as a man, as a fighter, and as a person in that ring that night.”
Four months later, Mark’s beloved coach Shawn Tompkins passed away of a heart-attack at the age of 37. Since then, many fans have speculated about the effect that the loss must have had on Hominick’s mindset and focus. Tompkins’s death became a convenient explanation for Hominick’s final three UFC performances — his freakish seven-second TKO loss to Chan Sung Jung last December and his subsequent decision losses to Eddie Yagin and Pablo Garza this year, all of which were considered significant upsets. But Hominick doesn’t see it that way:
“Losing Shawn was a definite blow to all of us at Team Tompkins, but to me it almost motivated me because I wanted to go out there and prove that we were gonna carry on his name and his tradition and his legacy, for what he did for us…That’s not a reason that I can point at. I think it’s just time for me to focus on the next part of my life.”
It’s tough to see a great competitor like Mark Hominick go out on the worst losing streak of his career, but it’s certainly better than the alternative — desperately trying to stay in the game when it’s no longer a benefit to your health or your family. So thank you, Mark, for a thrilling career, and best wishes for the future. We’ll be doing push-ups today in your honor.
