UFC Fight Night 154: Moicano vs. Korean Zombie - Predictions and Picks
After a rare UFC-less weekend, the world’s biggest MMA promotion is back this Saturday for yet another show on the ESPN+ streaming service. This time it’s UFC Fight Night 154: Moicano vs. Korean Zombie, and it’s the first UFC show to ever take place in the state of South Carolina.
In terms of name value, the show isn’t that heavy, but there’s a remarkable amount of reliable action fighters on the card; from the two men in the main event to the likes of John Lineker, Bryan Barbarena and Kevin Holland elsewhere, and that alone should make it a show worth watching.
Here are the predicted outcomes for UFC Fight Night 154: Moicano vs. Korean Zombie.
#1 Renato Moicano vs. Chan Sung Jung
We haven’t seen cult favourite Chan Sung Jung – AKA ‘The Korean Zombie’ – since his wild November 2018 loss to Yair Rodriguez, another instant classic put on by the former WEC 145lber.
The seven-month layoff actually hasn’t been too long for the Zombie’s standards, however, given he’d only fought once between August 2013 and that fight in November. Basically, it’s nice to have him back so quickly.
Opponent Moicano is coming off a loss too, in his case to Jose Aldo in February. Prior to that the Brazilian had been looking like a potential future title contender; he was 5-1 in the UFC with the only loss being a last-gasp submission against Brian Ortega, and his wins over Jeremy Stephens, Cub Swanson and Calvin Kattar had all impressed hugely.
Moicano was actually doing very well against Aldo too, using his long frame – he stands at 5’11” – to snipe at the former champion from the outside and land counter shots, but Aldo simply overwhelmed him with sheer savagery in the early part of the second round and he succumbed to a TKO soon after, the first time he’d been stopped by strikes in his career.
To me this is a very interesting fight for a number of different reasons. If Moicano were to win then he’d regain a lot of the momentum he lost to Aldo, and it’d be very possible that he could find himself in a No. 1 contender’s fight next time out, if we assume Alexander Volkanovski has first dibs on the Max Holloway/Frankie Edgar winner.
If Jung were to win though, it’d almost certainly vault the Zombie back into the top 5 – somewhere he hasn’t occupied for a long time – and a fight with someone like Ortega or a rematch with Aldo would surely be in his future.
Jung is a fascinating fighter in that despite his reputation as a wild brawler, he’s actually a far more technical striker than a lot of people realise.
He’s got an excellent jab, and uses it to set up his bigger shots; punches like the coffin-nail uppercut he used to knock out Dennis Bermudez in 2017, for instance. Sure, he relies far too much on his chin and definitely takes too much damage for his own good, but then he is the Korean Zombie after all.
On the ground he’s no slouch either – everyone remembers his crazy twister submission of Leonard Garcia in 2011, but it’s very easy to forget that he actually made his name in his early days in Japan as a grappler, picking up five submission wins in his first 9 fights.
Moicano is a more disciplined striker; his long frame allows him to strike well from the outside while largely avoiding damage, and we’ve seen him use that base to pick up a couple of his better wins.
Swanson was knocked down by a particularly stiff jab and that set up Moicano’s rear naked choke finish, while Stephens was largely picked apart by Moicano’s movement and leg kicks.
My instant reaction is to suggest that Moicano could probably pick Jung off from the outside in a similar fashion to how he did Stephens.
He’s got a two-inch height advantage and although both men apparently have a 72” reach, Moicano is far more adept at striking from range. If he can work his leg kicks from the beginning of the fight then he could definitely slow the Zombie down and pick him apart.
The issue I’ve got with that is the way in which Aldo took Moicano out. Stephens kept on firing haymakers from the outside that were easily avoided by Moicano, but Aldo on the other hand waded into the pocket with wild strikes, and once he landed, Moicano essentially folded under the pressure.
It’s always a risk wading into the pocket like that with a striker the calibre of Moicano, but if anyone could replicate that Aldo finish, it’s Jung, who has a chin of iron and isn’t likely to be suddenly KO’d, despite being knocked out by that wild elbow from Yair Rodriguez last year.
I’m relatively confident that this fight will be a wash if it does hit the ground; Jung is a good enough grappler to survive anything Moicano can throw at him despite the Brazilian’s strong Jiu-Jitsu background and neither man is a real ground-and-pound artist.
That means I think it’ll be a striking match and I’m going to hedge my bets on the Zombie, even if he loses the first round or two. At some stage he’ll be able to wade in and swing from the pocket, and I think the fight ends shortly after.
The Pick: Jung via fourth round TKO