UFC 163 saw two featherweight bouts take place on Saturday, and none was more important to the division than the championship bout.
Reigning champion Jose Aldo picked up another TKO stoppage when he defeated “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung. Aldo con…
UFC 163 saw two featherweight bouts take place on Saturday, and none was more important to the division than the championship bout.
Reigning champion Jose Aldo picked up another TKO stoppage when he defeated “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung. Aldo controlled the fight for more than three rounds and then swarmed on an injured Jung. Referee Herb Dean had to step in to stop the fight.
Aldo has been atop the division since 2009.
Also in featherweight action, Rani Yahya dominated Josh Clopton on the Facebook prelims. Yahya has now won three straight, looking increasingly impressive. Has he done enough to get into the official Top 10?
Following UFC 163, these are our top 10 featherweights in the UFC.
Jose Aldo successfully defended his UFC featherweight title for the fifth time on Saturday night, defeating “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung by fourth-round TKO.
The victory came for Aldo after a clean sweep through the first three rounds, where he u…
Jose Aldo successfully defended his UFC featherweight title for the fifth time on Saturday night, defeating “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung by fourth-round TKO.
The victory came for Aldo after a clean sweep through the first three rounds, where he used tactical striking to time every shot he landed on Jung to outpoint the tough featherweight challenger.
The end of the fight came, however, after a strange exchange of punches left Jung with only one arm.
As the two fighters both threw punches, Jung’s right hand slammed into Aldo’s shoulder, and the Korean’s own arm seemed to pop in a weird motion. A second later, Jung was shaking his arm and something was noticeably wrong with his shoulder.
“I noticed his arm popped out and then I took him down and tried to punch him,” Aldo told Fuel TV after his victory at UFC 163. “I knew that I won the first, second and third rounds, I just wanted to slow down a little bit so I wouldn’t be exposed against him.”
It was an odd end to the fight, but a dominant victory for Aldo nonetheless, who was winning on the scorecards going into the final two rounds.
After the fight was over, Aldo explained that his strategy was such to avoid Jung’s heavy-handed bombs, which he’s known to throw, while admittedly slowing down in the fourth round to preserve the victory.
“I knew that I was winning the first three rounds, and I didn’t want to expose myself,” Aldo explained. “Normally, I slow down a little bit in the fourth because I don’t want to expose. I hold the belt, the belt’s mine, that’s the way it’s supposed to be. You don’t fight to expose yourself in the fourth round. Every time people think that I’m getting tired, I’m not, my cardio’s great.”
The win on Saturday night marked Aldo’s 13th in a row since signing to Zuffa in 2008 (originally in the WEC before moving to the UFC), with all of those victories coming in the featherweight division.
With such a dominant reign atop the weight class, Aldo has teased in the past about a potential move to lightweight for a new crop of challenges.
Following his win over Jung, it seems that door is open more now than ever before.
“I don’t know, I would love it, but this is with Joe Silva,” Aldo said. “If he gives me the opportunity, I would go there and fight.”
There are plenty of interesting matchups for Aldo at 155 pounds, but before he can think about going there he first had to tend to an injured foot he suffered in the fight against Jung.
According to Aldo, the first kick he threw of the night connected flush with Jung’s knee, and while he’s not sure if he broke it or not, he’s taking a trip to the hospital to have it X-rayed to find out exactly what may be wrong.
Hopefully, Aldo’s injury isn’t too severe and he can get back in action soon; then it’s just a matter of which weight class he’ll be competing at when he returns.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report
Not many people would stand in front of one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world and try to shove their shoulder back into its socket. However, that was what Chan Sung Jung was doing moments before Jose Aldo realized Jung was badly hurt an…
Not many people would stand in front of one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world and try to shove their shoulder back into its socket. However, that was what Chan Sung Jung was doing moments before Jose Aldo realized Jung was badly hurt and moved in to finish the fight.
It was a crazy ending to a fight that many had high hopes for but essentially underwhelmed.
Aldo (23-1) was originally scheduled to fight Anthony Pettis in UFC 163’s main event, but a knee injury knocked Pettis from the card. Stepping in to take his place was Jung (13-4), a fighter who had not fought in over a year.
The reason Jung got the call most likely had something to do with his nickname and style of fighting that reflects that nickname, “The Korean Zombie.” Jung has an uncanny ability to take a huge amount of punishment and keep moving forward. We did not see that style in this fight.
Jung seemed to hold back, perhaps a bit worried that a mistake would open him up to the punishing striking that the champion possesses. We didn’t see much of that, either. Aldo also looked like he was holding back, happy to rely on movement and takedowns instead of his trademark devastating leg kicks.
Aldo revealed during the post-fight press conference that he injured his foot on his first kick attempt and that he was headed to the hospital to have it checked out after the press conference.
Aldo landed five of six takedowns and 32 of 87 significant strikes. Jung landed 17 of 117 significant strikes, improving Aldo’s featherweight record striking-defense numbers.
UFC 163 offered a night of quality finishes, fights and some strange endings.
In the main event, Jose Aldo successfully defended the UFC Featherweight Championship against The Korean Zombie. He got the finish in the fourth round, but there will be more…
UFC 163 offered a night of quality finishes, fights and some strange endings.
In the main event, Jose Aldo successfully defended the UFC Featherweight Championship against The Korean Zombie. He got the finish in the fourth round, but there will be more on that later in this slideshow.
Phil Davis took a contentious decision over Lyoto Machida in the co-main event to move up the light heavyweight ladder.
There was plenty of other action in the other 10 bouts. Rio de Janeiro was given another quality night of fights at the HSBC Arena. On paper, it wasn’t the strongest card, but it had plenty of entertaining fighters to fill out the event. They came to fight and fought for our entertainment.
These are six memorable moments from Saturday night’s card.
UFC 163 is in the books, and the less-than-highly anticipated card turned out to be a strange one, thanks predominantly to a fourth-round shoulder injury to “The Korean Zombie” that led to a Jose Aldo stoppage win.
The co-main event was also a strange …
UFC 163 is in the books, and the less-than-highly anticipated card turned out to be a strange one, thanks predominantly to a fourth-round shoulder injury to “The Korean Zombie” that led to a Jose Aldo stoppage win.
The co-main event was also a strange one, as Lyoto Machida was defeated by Phil Davis via unanimous decision. Only problem? Many felt Machida was robbed.
Plenty of individuals went to Twitter to make their opinions be heard. Here are the best tweets from Jose Aldo vs. The Korean Zombie:
NO WAY Phil Davis beat Lyoto Machida @ufc 163. Machida won evry round. Out pointed him. Controlled octagon. 2 late rd takedowns not enuff.
Okay, so this tweet doesn’t have anything to do with the main event. But Stuart Scott is not too thrilled with the Machida-Davis decision. He’s not alone.
Is there anything that UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo can’t do in the Octagon?
On paper, it appeared that the champion’s latest challenger, Chan Sung Jung, could at least make it an interesting fight if he was able to take it to the gro…
Is there anything that UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldocan’t do in the Octagon?
On paper, it appeared that the champion’s latest challenger, Chan Sung Jung, could at least make it an interesting fight if he was able to take it to the ground.
“The Korean Zombie” hadn’t been taken down in his last five fights, according to FightMetric, and was known for possessing an aggressive ground game. Heading into the fight, you had to think there was at least a small chance he could stun the champion with something crazy like the Twister that he put on Leonard Garcia at UFC Fight Night 24.
So what did Aldo do?
He willingly took the fight to the ground. According to ESPN Stats & Info, the renowned striker attempted six takedowns and landed five of them. That’s not a bad success rate going against a fighter who had never been taken down in his UFC career.
Ultimately, it wasn’t Aldo’s fancy ground work that won him the fight, though. Jung suffered an apparent separated shoulder in the fourth round, and the champion pounced with some impressive strikes to put “The Korean Zombie” away, as Jeremy Botter of Bleacher Report summed up in this tweet:
Aldo’s performance was surprising yet familiar at the same time. With no losses in eight years and seven consecutive title defenses reaching back to his days in WEC, we’re used to seeing him dominate whoever is placed in front of him.
But we’ve never seen him utilize the grappling aspect of his game so heavily. That’s a scary development for the rest of the featherweight division.
Aldo has always been one of those fighters who receives rave reviews for his jiu-jitsu but rarely puts it on display when fight time comes. With his win over Jung, he showed that he’s not only the most feared striker in the division but can grapple with just about anyone as well.
Unseating the champion just became even more difficult after watching him dismantle yet another top contender at featherweight.
