The main event of UFC 273 will feature featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski defending his title against The Korean Zombie, Chan Sung Jung. Volkanovski is, at worst, the third best pound for pound fighter in the UFC with a legitimate case for the top spot. I wish Volkanovski had the opportunity to be more active because I love watching him fight. Unfortunately, circumstances surrounding the division as a whole have probably led him to fighting less than he would like, but he's climbed the list of my favorite fighters to watch quite a bit over the last few years. The Korean Zombie is a pretty well known opponent and a game challenger, despite some fans not being all that excited that he was given this title shot. Originally, this was supposed to be Volkanovski's third title fight against Max Holloway, but Holloway announced that he sustained an injury and pulled out of the fight a few months ago. A lot of people thought that Giga Chikadze would get the title shot, but after he lost to Calvin Kattar in the first main event of 2022, those hopes were dashed for the time being. Zombie isn't on the greatest run, but he has a brief personal history with Volkanovski that I don't fully understand. I think it just has to do with things said in interviews, but the exact details and circumstances aren't clear to me and I don't think it has really even come up to this point in the build up. Regardless of that, he is always game to fight and is almost a guaranteed fun fight to watch. I think that is why I don't have a problem with him getting this fight. There's no real standout candidate with Holloway unavailable and in that case, just put on the most interesting fight and I think Zombie fits that perfectly. It isn't often that a title fight main event is the third most anticipate fight on a card, but I think that is actually the case with this one. We have the massive excitement behind Chimaev vs Burns and the two year saga of Yan vs Aljo, so this one has taken a bit of a back seat in terms of hype. This is a fight between two really good and fun fighters and honestly, it is a bit of a breath of fresh air after all of the cringe-inducing build up to UFC 272. I've talked long enough, let's start breaking down this fight.
In the blue corner, we'll see Chan Sung Jung. I always feel weird because I feel like calling him Zombie doesn't give him credit because I'm not using his real name, but when you say his real name, there's a legitimate chance that a lot of people have no idea who you're talking about. He seems to like the Zombie name has been called it in interviews before, so I'll just go with it, but it is sort of a weird thing for me. Anyways, The Korean Zombie has been in the UFC for quite awhile now. He made his promotional debut all the way back in 2011 against Leonard Garcia and has been a fan favorite ever since. He's only 7-3 in the UFC, but he was away from fighting for 4 years when he served his time in the Korean military. He won his first three fight in the UFC, including a submission win over Dustin Poirier, which propelled him into his only UFC title fight. He would be finished in the fourth round of that fight against Jose Aldo and that was his last fight before his hiatus. That fight was in August of 2013 and he wouldn't return until February 2017 against Denis Bermudez in a fight that Zombie would win via first round knockout. Since his return, he hasn't been able to really find his footing in terms of consistent success. His activity levels have fallen off and the COVID situation didn't help matters. Overall, he has won three of his last four. He defeated Renato Moicano and Frankie Edgar by TKO before losing a decision to Brian Ortega, which saw Ortega get his title shot against Volkanovski. He defeated Dan Ige in his last fight, which isn't typically the kind of win that would put someone in a title fight, but "these things happen in MMA". Stylistically, Zombie is primarily a striker, but he does have solid enough grappling. He has pretty decent power for the division and is known for his willingness to come forward and engage. He isn't quite as willing to be in a fire fight as he was in his younger days, but he will still bite down on the mouth piece and trade at times if he has to. He combines his powerful boxing combinations with solid volume striking. He won't overwhelm opponents with volume, but he strikes a nice balance of amount of strikes and the impact those strikes have. His willingness to be in wild fights for much of his career has resulted in a career striking accuracy that is a little lower than you might guess, but he's been able to reign that in a bit in more recent years. Percentage wise, he has decent striking defense, but the overall number is a bit higher than he would probably like. Even though he would much prefer to stand, his grappling isn't necessarily a weakness. He isn't a fantastic offensive wrestler and doesn't hit a ton of takedowns of his own at a very high rate, but he can do it if he has to. He does a pretty solid job at preventing takedowns though and that may be important in this one. Once he is on the ground, he has a somewhat dangerous submission game. His ability to find submissions is definitely the strength of his grappling skillset and, while I don't think him submitting Volkanovski is likely, it can't be completely ignored either. When it comes to any weaknesses in Zombie's game, they seem to be age and mileage related. Not only is Zombie starting to get up there at 35 years old, but he's been in a lot of fights and, in particular, a lot of really hard fights. I think some of those things are starting to catch up with him and has exposed a few cracks in his game. Zombie doesn't strike with quite as much volume as he used to and doesn't seem to have as much power as he once did. He gets hit a tad more than he used to and those shots have more of an effect on him than they ever have. These small regressions don't inherently make Zombie weak in those areas, because I wouldn't say he is, but he just isn't the same guy he was in years past. It can be hard for fighters to adjust to not having the ability to do a certain thing the way they had for their entire lives up to that point. I still think Zombie throws with good volume and good power. I think his cardio is still in a decent spot and his chin is still mostly intact. The regression that he has experienced in any single area isn't enough to completely derail someone, but combining the small regression in all of those spots adds up. I don't think the prime version of Korean Zombie loses the Brian Ortega fight in the way he did. One tactical thing that I think is worth pointing out is that Zombie is very heavy on his front leg and fights a boxing heavy style. He leaves himself open to leg kicks and I expect Volkanovski will be prepared to take advantage of it. The last thing I want to mention is the betting odds for this fight, which have gotten slightly out of hand. Volk should be the favorite and a pretty healthy one, but having him at -800 suggests that Zombie has basically no chance, which is a bit ridiculous. He's still plenty talented enough and has solid power. Volkanovski has been hurt before as well, which leaves at least some chance he gets knocked out. Not to give away my pick for tomorrow, but I am definitely picking Volk to win, but I think this line is a little out of control.
The reigning, defending, undisputed featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski has earned every bit of his nickname, "The Great". I don't really know if there are words that I can use that will be able to fully do him justice, but I'll try. He comes into this fight 23-1 and his only loss came in 2013 in what was his fourth career fight. He came over to the UFC in 2017 and is 9-0 in that time. He really started to rise up the division and be taken seriously after his win over Darren Elkins. He would go on to beat Chad Mendes and Jose Aldo before getting his title shot against Max Holloway. He would win that fight and then narrowly win the rematch in a fight that I scored for Volk despite being a huge Max Holloway fan. His last defense was a fantastic performance where he largely dominated Brian Ortega. He was able to escape a couple of really close submission attempts in the middle portion of that fight that would have caused most people to tap, but Volk was able to fight through and then went on to win pretty convincingly. Stylistically, I guess I would qualify Volk as more of a striker than a grappler, but he's as well rounded as anyone in the world right now. I think striking is a bit more natural for him and better allows him to use his advantages to their fullest extent. He's a technical striker who is able to use both punches and kicks to keep his opponents off balance. Because he has no real area of weakness, he is open to take advantage of whatever his opponent is giving him. He isn't extremely powerful and is a bit on the smaller side for featherweight, but his power is sufficient for featherweight. His wrestling is solid as well. He doesn't land takedowns with great efficiency, but he does average almost 2 per 15 minutes, so he is willing to mix it up whenever the fight calls for it. His main advantage is his physical conditioning. His cardio is some of the best in the entire sport, quite possibly the very best. It allows him to put a pace on his opponents that they simply can't match. He lands over 6 significant strikes per minute, while landing almost 2 takedowns per 15. That is usually just too much offense for anyone to be able to really even come close to matching. He's a great technical striker, with great volume, good power, and good striking defense. He's a solid wrestler and has pretty good takedown defense as well. Put, at least, above average skills in every facet of the fight with the some of the best cardio in the sport and that gives you a challenge that will take a significant effort or all time performance in order to overcome. Volk really doesn't have a weakness, but I guess if I had to find one, I would say that his chin has been found a few times. His only career loss came via knockout and he has been dropped before at other times in his career. Max Holloway isn't known for his power and he was able to drop Volkanovski in their second fight, so while it isn't much, that is at least one thing to potentially look for. It won't be easy, but I think if Zombie is going to win, that will be his chance. There really isn't much else to say in terms of a weakness for Volk and that is really a testament to how great of a champion he really is.
I do have a few keys for this fight that I want to discuss and, like usual, most of them are more focused on how to pull off the upset. The first key is getting off to a fast start for the Zombie. Volkanovski isn't as slow of a starter as Petr Yan, but he definitely gets stronger as the fight goes on. Holloway won early rounds against Volkanovski and I think Ortega had his most successful moments in the first half of that fight. Zombie is going to have to get off to a good start and be looking for a finish from the jump. Unless Zombie can really hurt Volk early and have him fighting significantly compromised, his odds of winning a decision are extremely low. Volk strikes with too much volume and would likely be the one on top if the fight went to the ground, so Zombie's ability to string together minutes of a round is extremely limited. He will likely have to rock or drop Volk in order to win rounds in this one unless he damages him to the point where Volk is fighting at a significantly diminished level of ability. As this fight goes on, it is going to favor Volk more and more. His cardio advantage is going to take over if the fight makes it to the championship rounds. Most times, I would advise against being reckless and taking chances in a fight, but I really think that is Zombie's best chance here. If he tries to fight a technical fight, he's going to get overwhelmed with volume. In terms of Volkanovski, I think he just has to resist the urge to try and go for a finish. If he manages the range and fights his typical fight, he should be ok. The leg kicks will be open for him and I would expect him to try to land that kick early and often. Those will limit Zombie's ability to push off and will zap a bit of his power. Volk just needs to do his thing and put the pace on the Zombie without walking into a power shot. I like to be a little more detailed with these, but this one just seems a bit on the straight forward side for me. I think Zombie needs to really push early and if he doesn't find the finish, he probably wasn't going to win anyway.
That is really all I have to say for this one. What do you guys think? What are your predictions for the fight? Do we see the upset or does Volkanovski retain? Leave your thoughts and comments below. As always, thanks for reading and have a good one.
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