UFC featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski has suggested The Korean Zombie was “too tough” for his own good at UFC 273.
In the main event on Saturday night, Alex Volkanovski put on an absolute clinic to defeat Chan Sung Jung, aka The Korean Zombie, and retain his belt. “The Great” lived up to his nickname with an utterly dominant performance that reminded the masses of a key fact – he’s easily one of the best fighters in the world right now.
A trilogy fight with Max Holloway appears to be on the horizon but before getting into all of that, Volkanovski used his appearance on The MMA Hour to explain how he felt about his finish over Zombie.
“In the third round, I wanted to get that finish,” Volkanovski said. “I was very close, maybe a couple seconds — he did well, he’s tough, where I was just about to get the finish and he rolled a little bit more and then just held out for when that buzzer went. But seeing him in the corner, he was sitting on the ground, he was done. Like I said, he was defeated. Even when he got up and was playing with his eye and was even wobbling to the center, I was [wondering] whether it’s legit, which means it’s over anyway, or was it a sign to the ref and the commission like, ‘I’m done.’ Was that him asking for [the fight to be stopped]. That’s sort of what I felt, so I just said to him, ‘Mate, are you sure you want to keep doing this?’ I don’t know if he understood me, but he’s like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,’ and I’m like, ‘Are you sure? Alright.’
“I think Herb knew where it was at, because I was like, come on, just stop it. I even said it a few times. So he was just like I’ll give him one last little chance but as soon as he eats a couple, he was gonna call it. So a lot of people knew it was done. Sometimes people being so tough, it’s worse for their own good. You don’t want to see them taking damage, especially where you could see he wasn’t really landing flush. Every time he did land, I saw them coming. I saw pretty much everything coming. Everyone knew it was pretty much over so I’m glad he stopped it.”
Quotes via MMA Fighting
How do you feel about Alex Volkanovski’s win over The Korean Zombie?