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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
As the UFC entered the summer of 2012, perhaps no fighter was as hot as featherweight Chan Sung Jung. "The Korean Zombie," as he's more affectionately known amongst MMA fans, capped off an immensely exciting three fight run in May of last year, submitting Dustin Poirier in a thrilling fight to set himself up for a title shot against Jose Aldo.
Unfortunately, he wasn't able to capitalize on the momentum built of his twister against Leonard Garcia, sub-seven-second KO over Mark Hominick, and the win over Poirier. Aldo suffered injuries that pushed his next scheduled defense into the fall, then Jung himself got injured while waiting on the sidelines for his shot.
TKZ was readying himself to return next month in what would have been just over 13 months out of action in a fight against Ricardo Lamas. However, last week he got the bittersweet news that Anthony Pettis had suffered an injury, killing his fight with Aldo at UFC 163, but opening the door for Jung himself.
"I was jumping around. I was so excited," Jung said of his reaction to getting the fight in an interview with Ariel Helwani at MMAFighting.com. "At first, when my manager told me, I didn't believe him. I thought he was playing a joke on me. I couldn't fall asleep until I saw Dana White's tweet about the fight."
Of course, getting the shot meant bad things had to happen to two other fighters. First was Pettis, who was forced out of what would have been a fantastic fight when he suffered a knee injury. Second was Lamas, who Jung is the first to admit was probably ahead of him in the featherweight pecking order. Still, though he feels for Lamas, this wasn't an opportunity he was willing to pass up.
"I do feel bad about it," Jung admitted. "I honestly think he was next in line, due to my time off, but I was told I was getting the next title shot after the Poirier fight. While I do feel bad for him, I wouldn't give this opportunity up for the world."
Taking this fight means pushing his return back yet another month, but Jung isn't feeling concerned about the layoff factor, and indeed thinks it's actually to his benefit.
"Actually, I think the time off has helped me in a couple of different ways," he said. "It's helped me get rid of a couple of nagging injuries and, even more so, it's really got me motivated to get back in to the Octagon. The time off has made me stir crazy, so I'm incredibly motivated to train hard and get back into action."
"I got back into shape preparing for Ricardo Lamas. I'm in fighting shape right now, so the extra month is only going to help me get stronger and focus on Jose Aldo."
Penick's Analysis: Jung doesn't have anything to feel bad about here, because he's simply taking the opportunity presented. He represents the bigger name as a featherweight challenger over Lamas, and he had earned his shot at Aldo last year, so he's not coming in as a completely underserving competitor. The layoff is definitely a concern, even if he plays it off like it's not, but being out of action that long in MMA isn't really to a fighter's benefit. Yes, he'll have worked on some things and certainly improved in some areas, but the lack of in cage, fight speed action means cage rust once he gets back.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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