There weren't many people that gave "Zombie" much of a chance of winning this fight against Max Holloway. As much as I like Zombie and generally will root for Asian competitors in the UFC, I never really thought he stood a chance in this fight. To be completely honest I was kind of surprised the Holloway agreed to do a Fight Night at all. He is Pay per View material as the number one contender and Fight Nights generally don't pay anywhere near as much money. Maybe Max is just in it for the love of the sport. Well, that is until you look at how this Fight Night was a massive payout for Max as he pulled in near $1 million for it. This is very rare for these ESPN events.
While Holloway did what we kind of expected him to do an won the fight vs Zombie, it was actually Zombie that was the center of attention regardless. There had been rumors of him falling out of love with the sport after a rather disappointing past couple of years and while it was just a rumor for us viewers, we kind of knew that if he failed to upset Holloway that he was going to give up his gloves and walk away from the sport.... and that is exactly what he ended up doing.
While not super-successful as a fighter, Zombie was beloved around the world and one of the most popular and accomplished Korean MMA fighters of all time. As tough as it is for anyone to break into MMA it is even more difficult for Asians since a vast majority of the focus for fighters lies in other parts of the world. There just isn't a huge market in Asia for UFC and therefore it is much more difficult for these fighters to break through to the big time. We need to keep in mind that becoming a UFC top-ranked contender requires a substantial investment on the part of the fighter. Training camps are normally paid for by the fighters themselves and at the lower levels travel and accommodation would even be a cost that the fighters themselves would have to endure. Then we also have to look at the fact that the best training camps in the world are almost exclusively in the United States and when you look at it like that you can understand why there are so few top-tier competitors from Asia.
I think Holloway was probably the perfect person for Zombie to face in his final fight because this is a much more glorious exit from the sport than by losing to some nobody after you are all washed up like Cowboy Cerrone and others have done. When you lose your final fight to one of the greatest featherweights that has ever competed in the sport you can leave with your head held high.
Chan Sung Jung aka "Korean Zombie" is one of those fighters that nobody hates. It's just not possible to dislike the guy. He always shows respect to his opponents, never beefs or talks trash, and simply gives all that he has every time he enters the octagon.
He smiles at his opponents at weigh ins, complements the people he fights against, and win or lose he is respectful of everyone he fights. As far as I know there has never been some sort of controversy with him such as losing your shit at a press conference and especially since the likes of McGregor made acting a fool a "fast track" to the top, Zombie never participated in any of that. This is what makes his worldwide recognition even more impressive because sadly, the "nice guys" rarely get noticed especially if they can't really participate in post-fight interviews without an interpreter.
The crowd went absolutely wild for Zombie's walkout, were chanting his name basically the entire fight, and they gave him a standing ovation as he left for the locker rooms. Chan Sung Jung was obviously affected by this and there were a lot of tears as he left the arena.
Dana White, who unfortunately was not in attendance in Singapore, said "This one hurt inside" and they played Zombie's song as he exited the arena and I don't believe this has ever been done for any fighter in the past.
In the fight Max did not dominate really any aspect of the fight and Zombie was landing some stiff shots, a couple of which rocked Holloway and it looked as if Zombie was just a few more strikes to ending the fight with a KO himself. When round 3 came around Zombie came out "swinging for the fences" and this pleased the crowd immensely. It would ultimately spell his demise though as I suspected it might. Max is a patient and experienced fighter and during the fray he found an opportunity and got Zombie right on the temple to send him crashing to the ground.
Holloway, a consummate professional himself, didn't try to hit Zombie more after this and in slo-mo it is kind of funny to see that he basically waved the fight off himself. There was no denying it, Zombie was done.
I truly feel that the 36 year old Korean could continue to fight if he wanted to and also get big paydays. UFC doesn't have very many big names in Asia and Zombie could always be counted on to deliver the goods, win or lose. Someone pointed out on Twitter that "The saddest part of The Korean Zombie’s career is that he had most his prime stolen from him due to mandatory military service" and this is true. Zombie was ripped from the UFC during the time when he was making a run to the top to fulfil his compulsory military service in South Korea that every male in that country is obligated to do. Zombie never used this as an excuse nor did he complain about it at all. When he did return, he was still a good fighter, but it was evident that he had lost a bit of the spark, not to mention several years of "prime time."
Will Zombie stay retired? I would imagine that he does. He is one of those fighters that doesn't seem to be in it for the money even though he does get rewarded rather handsomely for his fights. Despite losing, he will be paid nearly a million dollars for this fight as well.
You will be missed Zombie. It's particularly sad because there is no passing of the torch here. There really isn't anyone that can fill that void.