A featherweight title fight between Alexander Volkanovski and ‘The Korean Zombie’ Chan Sung Jung will now headline UFC 273 on April 9th.
Volkanovski had originally been scheduled to undergo a trilogy fight with Max Holloway at UFC 272 a month earlier, but ‘Blessed’ had to be pulled from the bout due to an injury soon after the booking materialized.
Many other leading 145lb contender’s began calling for a chance to serve as a replacement for Holloway and in the end it’s ‘The Korean Zombie’ who has been given the opportunity.
It comes at a time when Jung is coming off a decision win over Dan Ige back in June of last year. In total the Zombie has now won three of his last four fights, having also TKO’d Renato Moicano and Frankie Edgar, though he did also suffer a loss on the scorecards to Brian Ortega during that period.
That leaves Jung ranked No.4 in the division as he now prepares for the second featherweight title shot of his career, having also gone up against Jose Aldo for the belt back in 2013 in a fight he lost by TKO.
As for Volkanovski, he’s firmly established himself at the summit of the weight class during his current 10-fight unbeaten run, which includes initially winning the title with a unanimous decision win against Max Holloway and then edging out a split decision verdict in the rematch, while he’s also since beaten Brian Ortega on the scorecards too back in September of last year.
Volkanovski vs. The Korean Zombie fronts a UFC 273 card that will also feature a bantamweight title rematch between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan in the co-main event.