UFC fan favourite Max Holloway to return with ‘Korean Zombie’ fight in Singapore

The former featherweight champion has long desired a bout with Chan Sung Jung

Alex Pattle
Combat Sports Correspondent
Friday 16 June 2023 12:11 BST
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Max Holloway will fight the “Korean Zombie”, Chan Sung Jung, in the main event of UFC Singapore in August.

Holloway, a former featherweight champion, has long desired a bout with Sung Jung, most recently calling for the fight after beating Arnold Allen in April.

Holloway, 31, outpointed Allen in a Fight Night main event in Kansas City to bounce back from his third loss to Alexander Volkanovski, who took the featherweight title from the Hawaiian in 2019 and has retained the belt against him twice. Sung Jung was also beaten by the reigning champion in his most recent fight, suffering a fourth-round TKO loss to Volkanovski last April.

Holloway and Sung Jung are now set to meet in a Fight Night main event at Singapore Indoor Stadium on Saturday 26 August.

Holloway and “Zombie” are both fan favourites, with each having taken on a ‘who’s-who’ of featherweights in the UFC. While Sung Jung, 36, has a somewhat patchy record in the promotion, Holloway has been largely dominant over the last decade – although Volkanovski has been a thorn in his side.

The Australian and Dustin Poirier – who beat Holloway with the interim lightweight title on the line in 2019 – are the only fighters to defeat the Hawaiian since 2013.

Holloway won the UFC featherweight title by stopping Jose Aldo in June 2017 and retained the gold against the icon six months later – with another TKO. “Blessed” also holds victories over Allen, reigning interim champion Yair Rodriguez, Brian Ortega, Calvin Kattar, Cub Swanson, and former UFC champions Charles Oliveira, Frankie Edgar and Anthony Pettis.

The news that Holloway vs Sung Jung would headline in Singapore was accompanied by two further announcements by the UFC. The promotion revealed that Cody Sandhagen would face Umar Nurmagomedov in a Fight Night main event in Nashville on 5 August, and that Ciryl Gane vs Sergey Spivak would be the headline bout at UFC Paris on 2 September.

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