UFC Busan results: Korean Zombie makes short work of Frankie Edgar, calls for title shot

Frankie Edgar agreed to step in on short notice against Chan Sung Jung at UFC Busan, but returns home with the fastest loss of his MMA career after “The Korean Zombie” stopped him in impressive fashion in the first round of their featherweight main event in South Korea.

Edgar had to deal with a huge height and reach disadvantage in what could be his last fight at 145 pounds, and came up short in his attempt to get Jung down. “The Korean Zombie” made him pay on the feet, rocking and dropping him with a combo and immediately taking his back on the ground.

Jung kept pounding him on the ground, but Edgar somehow survived and managed to get back up. “The Korean Zombie” would not let him escape, though, knocking him down again, and this time making sure that referee Marc Goddard would save him from more damage at the 3:18 mark.

With back-to-back first-round knockouts in 2019 and third most finishes in featherweight history, “The Korean Zombie” was quick to call for a shot at newly crowned 145-pound champion Alexander Volkanovski.

“I want Volkanovski,” Jung said in English in his post-fight interview.

Speaking through a translator, “The Korean Zombie” reacted to one of the biggest win of his career six months after a 58-second win over Renato Moicano.

“I was ready to fight all five rounds for 25 minutes, but my coaches and team said that’s not gonna happen,” Jung said. “Last time I was told that my fight was just luck, but not this time.”

Light heavyweights Volkan Oezdemir and Aleksandar Rakic fought a close, fun three-round battle in the co-main event in South Korea. Rakic opened up with a flying knee and immediately went for a guillotine, but Oezdemir eventually escaped. Rakic went with punches while the Swiss landed kicks that did damage under Rakic’s left knee. After three close rounds, Oezdemir won a split decision.

Up 2-1 in 2019 after a knockout win over Ilir Latifi and a controversial decision loss to Dominick Reyes, Oezdemir remains interested in a rematch with the 205-pound title contender, who is set to challenge Jon Jones for the UFC gold on Feb. 8, but called for another dangerous opponent next.

“You know already that I want my rematch with Dominick Reyes because everybody knows that decision was bullsh*t,” Oezdemir said in his post-fight interview. “He’s gonna do his own things, but in the meantime I want to fight Anthony Smith.”

Also on the UFC Busan fight card, Charles Jourdain and Doo Ho Choi engaged in an exciting brawl in the opening stanza, trading hands and kicks. Choi rocked and dropped the Canadian in the first, but Jourdain got the last laugh in the final seconds of the next round, landing a counter left followed by a right hand knocked Choi down and out (watch here).

Victorious for the first time in the Octagon after losing a decision to Desmond Green in his debut in May, Jourdain asked for a post-fight bonus “to move out of my parent’s basement” and called out Cub Swanson, who recently suffered a knee injury in a grappling match at Quintet.

Three South Korean fighters were victorious in the early portion of the main card. Da Un Jung woke up the crowd with an impressive first-round finish against Mike Rodriguez. Jung dropped Rodriguez with a vicious right hand, putting him out cold with four follow-ups in just 64 seconds (watch here). Jung has now won 12 straight with 11 finishes.

Middleweight Jun Yong Park and bantamweight Kyung Ho Kang won decisions in their home country, topping Marc-Andre Barriault and Liu Pingyuan, respectively.

The highlight of the preliminary card came from Brazilian fighters Alexandre Pantoja and Amanda Lemos, who scored first-round finishes against Matt Schnell (watch here) and Miranda Granger. Raoni Barcelos and Ciryl Gane secured important decision wins over Said Nurmagomedov and Tanner Boser.

Click here for complete UFC Busan results.