Analyzing The Korean Zombie’s Keys To Victory At UFC 163
‘The Korean Zombie’ Chan Sung Jung has had an exciting rise through the ranks of the UFC’s elite. After the merger of the UFC and WEC, KZ avenged his WEC 48 loss to Leonard Garcia with a vicious twister submission. His follow up fight at UFC 140 was a seven second knockout of former title challenger Mark Hominick, and after choking out Dustin Poirer in May 2012, Jung has found himself scheduled to face Jose Aldo for the 145lb. belt.
KZ will face, in Aldo, one of the pound for pound best fighters on the planet. A task that I’m sure he will not be taking lightly, and given the upset that Chris Weidman scored over Anderson Silva, I’m not ruling out a KZ win at UFC 163. So what’s the key to victory for KZ against Aldo?
Well firstly, I think Jung needs to tighten up his defence. He loves to make his fights in to wild brawls, often swinging wildly with no regard for his opponents offense. This could prove costly against Aldo, who has pin point accurate striking. His KO against Chad Mendes showed us that Aldo will capitalize on even the smallest opening, let alone a fighter with his hands down.
Not only that, we have seen that KZ can be knocked out. His final WEC bout was a brutal head kick KO loss against George Roop. If Roop can put KZ’s chin to the test, then Jose Aldo certainly can. KZ’s trademark in the past has been to provide all out war and excitement during his matches, but I think he will need the element of surprise against Aldo, in the form of a gameplan.
Where we’ve seen Aldo fail in the past has been with cardio, although I’m sure he has trained hard for this fight, I think KZ should try and force the fight later on. Jung needs to try and push the pace as the rounds go on, see if he can catch the champion taking a breather, and capitalize.
Jung’s submission game is very high level, his twister win in the second Garcia fight was an incredible thing to watch. If he can catch Aldo in something similar, we may see the second biggest upset of the year.
Secondly, I think Jung will have to work on his movement, specifically when coming in. Urijah Faber will probably say the same thing, given that Aldo leg kicked him untill his thigh looked like minced beef. Simply plodding in against Aldo would open the door to a barrage of leg kicks, enabling the champion, at the least, to score a lot of points on the judges cards.
Thirdly, I think that KZ is going to have to deal with Aldo’s overwhelming speed. The champion is lightning quick and also devastatingly powerful. Something Cub Swanson knows only too well. He has a diverse striking arsenal which he mixes with his speed, and can create big problems early on. Jung can’t let himself fall in to the trap of getting hit at will.
We all know KZ can put on a great show, but if he really wants a win against Aldo, he will have to put his ego on the shelf. The truth of the matter is that Jung is going to have to make some major adjustments in his game.
For Aldo, I think it will be business as usual. For KZ he has a huge mountain to climb, and I’m very interested to see how he handles it. Check out KZ’s pre fight interview, courtesy of UFC.com,and stay tuned to Lowkick!
