Fight Study 53: Zombie vs. Edgar (transcript) (Patreon)

UFC Fight Night: Edgar vs the Korean Zombie was the last UFC event of the 2019 calendar year, and the main event did not disappoint. Frankie Edgar traveled into enemy territory when he stepped up on short notice to face Jung on roughly 2 weeks’ notice. Not only did this save the headliner, it also guaranteed that Jung would still be able to face a high level featherweight to keep this bout from being a squash match. Despite Edgar’s brave attempt to win with the odds stacked against him, it wasn’t enough as Jung finished Edgar via TKO at 3 minutes and 18 seconds of the first round.

In all honesty, this shouldn’t have surprised anyone. Jung has been quietly improving his skillsets fight after fight, and he finally seems to be putting it all together. We all knew Jung was tough and can hold his own in a brawl, but who knew that he was such a polished striker? If you take a closer look at his fights, you can see that all the signs were there that he’s been steadily working on his sharpening his punches.

For whatever reason, people are still under the impression that Jung will strike like a madman, getting in close to exchange hooks and uppercuts, often taking a punch to give one. That side of him still exists, but it only makes appearances when it absolutely has to. Otherwise, the Jung of today is much more strategic fighter that relies on a certain number of tools that he has sharpened like a fine blade.

This isn’t easy to hide, especially when you consider that since 2012, he’s headlined every single card he’s been on. Not only that, he’s had just 6 fights since that time period, meaning his frequency is less than once a year. 2019 was the first time since 2011 when he’s had more than 1 fight in a calendar year. Granted, most of that absence was due to his mandatory military service and multiple injuries, but how many fighters can take that much time off between appearances and still get top billing? Outside of the usual A-list stars like McGregor and Jon Jones, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone that can get that kind of leverage.

In the fight preview article, I spoke at length about Jung’s evolution, and how he has one of the best counter games at featherweight. Jung went from reckless brawler who constantly plodded forward to pressure fighter who gets you to swing first so he can hit back with his slick right hand/left hook combination. Jung is no longer just an exciting fighter, he is a legit contender for the title. You can see after his fight with George Roop that he made a conscious decision to no longer just plod forward, taking a shot to give a shot. No, he will be strategic. He will still pressure fighters, but taking damage is no longer going to be a freebie: if someone was going to land a strike on him, they were going to have to earn it.

Jung’s rematch with Leonard Garcia looked completely different from their first fight, and not just because he won by twister. The second time around, Jung moved forward and feinted to get Garcia to swing at air so he can counter with sharp hooks and straights. Garcia is a wild man but he’s not dumb: taking damage for nothing and not connecting on his own strikes made him cautious. Jung’s 7 second finish of Hominick is also a testament to his ability to read the striking terrain and counter effectively. The speed and power of Jung’s strikes constantly surprise opponents, they’re just not expecting something to come that quickly. This doesn’t mean that Jung has Rumble Johnson power, but think of it more like the kind of striking that Conor McGregor has. McGregor’s left straight is based on timing and precision, and so are Jung’s strikes. The punches are wider and less compact, but thrown at the right time when the opponent is either just finishing up their own strikes or moving forwards towards what they think is a defense-less Jung. Look carefully at his hips and you’ll see that Jung slightly lowers his base before uncorking his strikes, giving them an extra boost in power and torque. It also gives the side benefit of being a good way to slip from his opponents strikes and countering from a dominant position. For whatever reason, this isn’t brought up by the announcers, and it’s certainly not something many camps have figured out a game plan against.

Anyways, lets take a look at the fight itself.

Although the Edgar is listed at 5’6” and Jung at 5’7”, there seemed to be a massive discrepancy in height and one of them is probably fibbing about their measurements. This didn’t help Edgar at all, since Jung seems to be completely at ease AND the much bigger fighter. Stutter steps, feinting with his jabs, and forward movement all seemed to be coming together. It’s interesting to note that even though Jung would step forward, he doesn’t pressure Edgar like you would normally expect. Instead, he stepped a couple of times and let Edgar come towards him. This was a similar strategy that Jose Aldo and Max Holloway used to get Edgar to over-commit and meet him in the middle with their own strikes.

Edgar’s low kicks did land but were too sporadic and not hard enough to discourage Jung from coming forward. After a right straight from Edgar, Jung connects with a short left hook right to the jaw, stunning him momentarily. From there, a lazy wrestling shot is easily stuffed and countered with an uppercut. This is a favorite of Jung and one of his signature strikes.

Still wobbly, Edgar moves back only to be met with an uppercut/left hook and right hook/left hook combination that drops him. Jung takes his back and controls the position smoothly. Once he has the leg hooks in, he keeps them in place while punishing Edgar with short hooks to the side of his head. He consistently flattens out Edgar’s base and keeps on landing punches, but doesn’t gas himself out doing so. This comes in handy since the always tough Edgar does find a way to get back on his knees and up on his feet, but the damage has been done.

Another uppercut to left hook drops Edgar again, and from there he finishes Edgar with strikes. This is the same finishing move that Jung caught Dennis Bermudez with, and it’s what caused the beginning of the end for Dustin Poirier in their match up.

Jung has always hurt you with his straights or uppercuts, but it’s usually the follow up hook that drops you. It’s definitely a specialty and something future opponents should keep an eye out for, but we’ll talk more about future opponents in just a bit.

At Southpaw, we talk constantly about how if you’ve been around the fight game long enough, especially at the highest level, you give your opponents ample time to study you and break apart your strengths and weaknesses. We saw it last week with Holloway vs Volkanovski, and the same thing happened to Edgar. There’s no shame in it, in fact it should be lauded for it’s longevity. There are plenty of one-trick ponies in combat sports who have a few cool moves but get shut down quite easily once people figure out a counter. The fact that Edgar was winning for so long against bigger opponents with nothing more than his smooth boxing into wrestling should prove just how effective it can be. To give you some context, in the same month that Edgar won his first title in the UFC against BJ Penn, Jung got KO’ed with a head kick by George Roop. Edgar made his UFC debut when Jung was finishing high school. Edgar has been in this game for a long time, let’s give the man his due.

With all that said, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but at some point, size does matter. It doesn’t mean that it’s everything, but when you have two evenly matched fighters, the bigger and stronger person holds a distinct advantage. Edgar used to be able to hang with the bigger guys due to his speed and technical skills, but it wasn’t enough. Even at featherweight, he’s definitely on the smaller side and would benefit more at 135 pounds. Let’s not forget that Edgar was actually preparing for his bantamweight debut before saving this Fight Night card. It looks like now more than ever that he should definitely not be fighting against other featherweights, but with a knockout loss like that, should he be fighting at all?

Edgar is 38 years old, and even though he can still be competitive with the top of any weight class, the amount of damage he’s taken throughout his career can’t be ignored. He’s been dropped multiple times in many of his fights, and the guys at 135 pounds can still punch plenty hard and have tons of power to boot. Jose Aldo also recently moved down to bantamweight and lost a razor close decision to Marlon Moraes, a former teammate of Edgar who is incredibly quick and can throw a switch kick at the drop of a hat. Also in the that weight class, guys like Cody Garbrandt and Pedro Munhoz lurk in the bottom of the top 10, just waiting for other to stand and trade with them. At the very top of the bantamweight heap is Henry Cejudo, former Olympic gold medalist and now respectable striker who took out TJ Dillashaw and Moraes to establish himself as the de facto king of 135. The guy that Edgar was slated to make his bantamweight debut against, Cory Sandhagen, isn’t exactly a chump either. At 5’11” with a 71” reach, he ALSO towers over Edgar and has a distinct height and reach advantage over him.

This isn’t a plea to get Edgar to retire. Who knows, maybe he’ll pull a Randy Couture and dominate once he finally gets to square up against guys his own size. However, Couture’s style is very methodical and doesn’t rely on speed, something that Edgar needs if he’s going to be competitive. I don’t know if 135 is the answer, but I do know that Edgar can be proud of all that he’s accomplished. This can be perfectly summarized by Holloway, who penned a classy Instagram post after his title fight against Edgar. He stated, and I quote,

“The GOAT talk always makes me cringe. Legends can coexist. Frankie was gonna win no matter what last night because I am part Frankie. I am who I am as a father and martial artist because of some of the things I’ve learned from Frankie and coach Mark Henry. Proud to be Hawaiian, proud to be honorary Canadian. But if you know this sport the way us fighters know it, every champ reps a little bit of Jersey whether they like it or not because of these two legends.”

What better endorsement can you get? I sincerely hope that Edgar is able to find some success at bantamweight, or he decides that enough is enough and he wants to hang up his gloves. Either way, the pride of Toms River, New Jersey can be proud of all he’s accomplished.

As for Jung, that’s his second straight finish in 2019, and immediately after the fight he called out Volkanovski. With Holloway noncommittal about his return date, this might be a fantastic first title defense match for the champion. Why not defend your belt against one of the most exciting fighters on the roster? If he can get the UFC to put the match in Australia, I can’t see Volkanovski turning down that opportunity. If Holloway does demand an immediate rematch, re-booking the fight with Ortega might be a good consolation prize and would definitively set the next contender for the belt. Either way, expect Zombie to be in the main event, no matter what the rest of the card looks like.

There is one other fighter on this card I wanted to talk a bit about, and that’s Doo-ho Choi. Facing off against Charles Jourdain, Choi was facing similar pressure to Jung, representing not just his country, but his hometown. Choi started off his UFC career with a bang, rattling off 3 finishes in the first round, courtesy of his dynamite right hand. With unnerving accuracy and speed, he was able to catch a lot of guys off guard, and he was given a step up in competition against Cub Swanson. At the time, Swanson was billed as the veteran fighter who was there to gauge the level of Choi.

Even though he was 2 and 2 in his last 4 fights, Swanson entered the match feeling disrespected, like the UFC brass was treating him as a sacrificial lamb for the upcoming South Korean star. One brutal war later that somehow went to a decision, it was clear that there were defensive holes in Choi’s game that would have to be shored up. It would be two years before Choi fought again, and he made his return against the always entertaining Jeremy Stephens. With so much time off between fights, people didn’t know if he would have ring rust or if the time off helped him sharpen up his defenses. Sadly, the same issues that plagued him in the Swanson fight emerged in the Stephen’s match-up, and it appeared that if Choi was going to improve, he would have to leave the confines of his small gym in Busan, South Korea. However, this did not happen.

When we talk about the improvements of the Korean Zombie, we can’t forget to mention how he sought out help from other fighters and camps in the United States. First, he got hooked up with Team Alpha Male, where he was able to get a better understanding of the wrestling game and how to learn better pacing and practice with UFC and WEC fighters. While at WEC, he met and bonded with Ben Henderson, so much so that he set up his stateside camp in Arizona. Through Ben Henderson, Jung got introduced to Eddie Cha, a striking coach that would take Jung from being a good brawler to amazing counter striker. For this camp (and earlier in 2019), Jung also linked up with Eric Albarracin, the head coach for Henry Cejudo and a decorated wrestler himself. Jung knew that he had the skills to make it to the top, but his team and coaching staff in Korea wouldn’t be enough to take him there. Traveling outside of his comfort zone (literally) is what helped him truly go from fan favorite to legitimate contender.

The good news is, Jung doesn’t have a monopoly on this kind of system. It’s a template that fighters like Choi can freely copy and use to their own advantage. In his fight against Jourdain, it was clear that Choi has power and a neat set of striking tools to hurt anyone on the feet. His right straight, crisp hooks, long uppercuts, and kicks are thrown with bad intentions. The problem is, everyone knows that. Jourdain is an unranked fighter, and this was his second UFC fight. After getting battered for most of the first round, he was able to figure out Choi’s striking patterns and seemed to get a better sense of his timing and footwork. A committed attack pattern centered around hurting Choi to the body definitely got Choi’s hands to drop, and a lack of feinting and lateral movements from Choi meant that he would become predictable. Eventually, a quick left hook/right hook combo put down Choi for good, extending his losing streak to 3.  

Sam recently pointed out that Choi might have to do the same thing that Jung did, and I agree. I don’t want to just summarize his post, so here it is in full:

“Zombie looked great. But Superboy might need to do what Zombie did and cross train in US after his military service.

The reason many Asian countries don't do as well in MMA is because they're developing it on their own, whereas the US, Europe, Brazil, and even Latin America are developing it together. So it's like trying to develop science on your own. Will be delayed.

And the reason is language barrier. Like at my gym we always hear about new things happening in Brazil and same thing for big gyms in Brazil, they hear about what we do here. And US Spanish speakers are not that uncommon so information spreads to Latin American gyms. Many European gyms have English speakers. But in Asia, usually there are 0 people at the gym who speak English. Actually they aren't going to speak any other language than their native one (typically). So information doesn't travel as quickly.” 

These are all excellent points, and for me personally, I would love for Choi to get in work with high level camps here in the states. Can you imagine him with the footwork and lateral movements of Eddie Alvarez? Or if he gets the kind of game planning and work from American Top Team? If he still wants to stand and bang, how about getting it from the former Chute Boxe legend himself, Rafael Cordeiro, at Kings MMA? Choi is still young, and after his military service, he still wouldn’t be ancient. He should be taking time off anyways after a finish like that, and hopefully he can take another look at his surroundings and make the best decision for himself and his career.

For Jourdain, it’s only up from here. He showed that he can weather the storm and learn from his opponents in real time. It’ll be interesting to see who the UFC matches him up with in the near future, and it’s always nice to see another fighter that has good body work and can listen to game plans.

Until next year, goodbye.