The Korean Zombie will have to wait a bit longer to make his return to the octagon.
The 35-year-old has been out of action since UFC 273 in April. In that outing, Zombie faced featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski. ‘The Great’ wound up dominating the fan-favorite en route to a fourth-round knockout victory.
Following the defeat, there were several that called for the Seoul native to retire. Zombie later hit back at those critics and announced his intention to fight on. However, he did acknowledge that his time in the sport was likely coming to an end sooner rather than later.
The Korean Zombie was expected to return at UFC Seoul next February. While no opponent was linked to the card, the featherweight contender was expected to headline the card. He previously main evented the UFC’s last trip to South Korea in 2019, scoring a first-round knockout win over Frankie Edgar.
Sadly, those return plans have now been blown up. On Instagram, Zombie stated that he suffered a brutal shoulder injury, and would be out of action for the foreseeable future. The longtime octagon veteran also seemed to indicate that the event could possibly off as a result of his withdrawal.
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“First speaking, the bone of the shoulder was dislocated and [I’m] unable to fight in February,” wrote Zombie in a lengthy Instagram post. “As me, who has always said that it’s a skill to not be good at injury management.. I feel like I’m still not good enough.”
He continued, “…I dislocated my shoulder ligament during wrestling training on December 7. The only thing I can say is sorry to everyone other than explaining the past. I don’t know what’s the point of saying this, but I’m a fan of martial arts deeply, but I wanted to let fans like me know the truth rather than making them believe contradictory or exaggerated words. If you curse me for being injured, I’m in this situation too.”
“I would like to say sorry for not managing them sincerely. And even if the Korean tournament is cancelled due to my injury, I’m really sorry for the Korean players who lost the opportunity to play in front of their family and friends.”
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