Brian Ortega vs Korean Zombie on UFC Fight Island
The long-awaited match-up between UFC featherweights Brian Ortega and Chan Sung Jung a.k.a. the Korean Zombie is set to unfold on Fight Island in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, October 16, 2020.
Winner fights for the title
The fight, which Dana White has confirmed will serve as a title challenger elimination bout, has been a long time coming. Both fighters have ridden high atop the elite of the UFC’s featherweight division for several years now. Both have defeated former champions. Not to mention, both fighters bring their own exciting style to the octagon, and each has a penchant for exciting finishes.
Rivalry: A war of words, an open-hand slap
The rivalry started back in 2019 on Instagram. The Zombie’s manager called out Ortega in the comments. Then the manager, Jay Park, said that Ortega was “ducking” Zombie. In fairness to Park, he maintains that he was faithfully interpreting the Zombies words from Korean to English. In fairness to Ortega, no one at MatMartial speaks Korean (yet), so we can’t say for certain who is telling the truth.
The war of words came to a head in March at UFC 258. Ortega approached Park, who was sitting in the stands a couple of rows back from the octagon, and asked him if he was Jay Park. Just as soon as Park said yes, Ortega slapped him across the face with an open palm. Other spectators and security intervened quickly before the situation became choatic, and Ortega was escorted from the arena.
Apology
Fast forward to the present, and Ortega has apologized and apparently the Zombie has accepted the apology. You can be sure, however, that this beef has not really been squashed. This history makes what would already be an exciting matchup even more compelling. On Saturday night, from Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, we will find out who gets the last word.
Long Layoffs and Octagon Rust
Both Ortega and Zombie are coming into Fight Island after a substantial lay off following injuries and the coronavirus pandemic. Zombie’s last fight was a TKO victory over future hall of famer Frankie Edgar on December 21, 2019 in South Korea. However, Ortega has been on the shelf even longer.
Ortega has not fought since he was dismantled by Max Holloway at UFC 231 in December of 2018. T-City suffered a sustained brutal drubbing at the hands of Holloway over 4 rounds. He couldn’t make it off the stool for round five. It was Ortega’s first loss as an MMA fighter. His record stands at 14-1, and 1 no contest for testing positive for performance enhancing substance following his first UFC victory in 2014.
Guaranteed Fireworks
No matter who wins, Brian Ortega vs Korean Zombie should be a barn burner on Fight Island. When the fight is standing, Ortega tends to plod forward and look for holes to land power punches. The Zombie also tends to come forward, albeit recklessly, and lands significant strikes at a clip of about 4.5 per minute.
Zombie will have a 3 inch reach advantage. He also boasts advantages in striking accuracy (41% vs 32%); striking defense (60% vs 50%), takedown average (.78 vs .51), and takedown defense (77% vs 56%).
Currently, Korean Zombie is the -190 favorite to Ortega’s +165.
Rener Gracie unable to corner T-City
One other intriguing detail leading into Saturday’s featherweight fight is that Ortega’s life-long jiu-jitsu coach and head corner, Rener Gracie, did not make the trip to Abu Dhabi due to a positive COVID-19 test result.
So, at least on paper, it looks like Korean Zombie’s fight to lose. He generally appears to be the stronger and more athletic fighter too. The factor that gives us the most pause before we can give the outright nod to the Zombie, is Ortega’s jiu-jitsu lineage: Mitsuyo Maeda > Helio Gracie > Rorion Gracie > Rener Gracie > Brian Ortega.
Jiu Jitsu Royalty
Ortega has trained under Ryron and Rener Gracie at the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Headquarters since he was a young teenager. He eventually became an instructor at the legendary Torrance, California jiu-jitsu academy. It is difficult to predict a loss for a direct product of jiu-jitsu royalty, and we won’t do it here.
However, we will be surprised if we see a marked difference in the fighters when the fight hits the mat.
Zombie
Korean Zombie comes into Fight Island with a professional record of 16-5. Six of his wins have come by knock out, but 8 have come by submission.
Born in Pohang, South Korea in 1987, Zombie moved to Namyangju, a satellite city of Seoul when he was in his mid-teens. The Zombie was bullied by his classmates, and got into many fights as a result. When his aunt could no longer stand to see Zombie get bullied, she took him to a Hapkido gym when he was 14 years old. Zombie also trained in kickboxing in high school. Later he also began training in judo and Brazilian jiu jitsu.
The Korean Zombie is a brown belt in jiu-jitsu, according to Wikipedia.
Who can forget when Zombie was able to avenge his loss to Leonard Garcia by submitting Garcia with a twister in the final second of the second round. The dynamic finish occurred on March 26, 2011, at UFC Fight Night in Seattle, Washington. It was the first twister submission in UFC history.
The Twister earned Zombie his first Submission of the Night honors. Zombie was later awarded for the Submission of the Year by the World MMA Awards. In his post-fight interview, Zombie stated he learned the Twister by watching Eddie Bravo videos on YouTube.
Prediction
Even though Chan Sung Jung has enjoyed fantastic success with his jiu-jitsu in the UFC, we think that Ortega is coming into the fight with the bigger chip on his shoulder. Ortega also has a good chin. He has shown toughness and durability in the past, so we don’t think the Zombie can finish him on the feet.
We are excited to see if we will be able to notice a difference in the ground game inside the octagon. We suspect that we must see that difference if Ortega expects to win the fight.
This is a very tough match-up to call. In the end, we believe that Ortega does possess a slight edge over the Zombie once the fight hits the ground. We predict that even without Rener Gracie in his corner, T-City will finish the fight with his trademark triangle. Ortega with the submission in the 3rd round.
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