Photo Credit: Essentially Sports

Match Preview: UFC Fight Night – Ortega vs. The Korean Zombie – 10/17/2020

Another weekend is upon us, which means another night of fights is in order as the UFC gives us another card on Fight Island. Despite no title fights on the card, UFC Fight Night will give us some intriguing matchups as each fighter is looking to move up the ranks and place themselves in a future title opportunity.

Brian Ortega (14-1 7 SUBs) takes on Chan Sung Jung, aka The Korean Zombie (15-5 6 KOs 8 SUBs) in a featherweight showdown in the main event.

This is Ortega’s first time back in the Octagon since his defeat against Max Holloway for the title at UFC 231 in December 2018. After the loss, Ortega took time to heel from injuries sustained in the bout and regather himself as it was the first time in his career someone else name was called the victor. In his comeback fight, Ortega was set to face Korean Zombie in the main event of a Fight Night card in December 2019, but a knee injury forced a further delay in seeing T-City back in action.

On a fast rise up the ranks due to an exciting fight style that saw him finish all six of his opponents in the UFC so far. Ortega is a Jiu-Jitsu ace who has shown given the smallest window; he’s going to lock-in and have you tapping shortly after. But with improvements in his standup skills, Ortega showed against former champion Frankie Edgar that he is more than capable of shutting your lights out.

But Ortega is not the only one in this main event that has missed significant time away from the fight game. Back in 2013 at UFC 163, Sung Jung challenged then-champion Jose Aldo for the featherweight title. Despite coming up short, he showed that he was a mainstay amongst the divisions top tier talent, and then he was gone.

He was pulled away to serve his two-year tour of service in the Korean military, sadly. At the height of his career, The Korean Zombie was put on the shelf. Since his comeback in early 2017, Zombie has gone 3-1 with 3 Performance of the Night and 1 Fight of the Night bonuses. So when the Zombie is in the cage, best believe we are in for an action-packed showing. He has a good mixture of standup with grappling skills. Zombie prefers to stand and bang with his opponents, but he is just as dangerous there as on his feet if the fight goes to the mat.

These two warriors have built up some heat beef between the two of them. With subtle jabs thrown at each other over the months, Ortega confronted a member of the Zombies team at a UFC event earlier in the year. Many criticized Ortega for the confrontation given Zombie wasn’t there, but when there’s bad blood between two camps, sometimes things boil over.

Nonetheless, these two stars get to settle things between them inside the Octagon on Fight Island. Surely given their status and recent success, the winner here will most likely be next in line for a title shot at current champion Alexander Volkanovski somewhere down the road.

There are also some interesting and familiar names on the card as well.

In the co-main event, former women’s strawweight champion Jéssica Andrade (20-8 7 KOs 7 SUBs) will be taking on former flyweight challenger Katlyn Chookagian (14-3) in a flyweight bout. Andrade returning to her old division to see if she can make another run at the title and be crowned champion as she was at 115lbs, while Chookagian is looking to put her name back in line for another shot at the champion. Both ladies are strikers, although Andrade is more aggressive and will look to push the pace and get inside and utilize her strength to possibly get this fight to the mat as Chookagian holds nearly an 8-inch height advantage.

UFC Fight Night will surely be a fun event to watch with some entertaining matchups and possible movement onto bigger and better things for the winners.

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-Kalani Lua – Franchise Sports Media

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