MMA Fighting - DAMN! They Were Good | A Farewell To The Korean Zombie, One Of The Most Beloved And Exciting Fighters Ever

Episode Date: September 4, 2023

DAMN! They Were Good celebrates the careers of the most exciting and influential fighters in MMA history and on this episode it celebrates the career of Chan Sung Jung, the man who became The Korean Zombie, delighting the masses with his particular blend of violence and toughness. The Korean Zombie stepped into the cage for the final time at UFC Singapore, where he was knocked out by Max Holloway in the third round after inviting a chaotic brawl in true Zombie fashion. Afterwards, the arena sang Zombie into retirement, chanting the words to The Cranberries song as Zombie exited the cage for the final time. In honor of Zombie's remarkable career, host Jed Meshew is joined by MMA Fighting's José Youngs and Alexander K. Lee to take a deep dive into what made Zombie so beloved and where he stands in the history of MMA. Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original blockbuster,

the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. Welcome to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Welcome to another edition of Damn They Were Good. You got two. Two in one week. This is a first, but some important stuff happened.

I don't know if you guys somehow missed it. on Saturday. One of the greats, one of the all-time greats. Korean zombie hung up his gloves for the final time after losing to Max Holloway at UFC, Singapore. We talked about it before the fight, said we could maybe do one to go along with his presumed retirement,

but you never know. You never know if he's going to retire. He said that maybe he wouldn't. And you want to see how the story ends. And I'm glad we waited. At the end, I think the story, I think that final fight is going to be hugely important. part of what we're talking about. But before we start talking about Korean zombie and his

illustrious career, let me tell you who's going to be here. First, man who's joined on many of these who self-admittedly says he is just here as just here as an accent piece, the wonderful Alexander K. Lee, and then the man for whom this show was built. The man who has berated me more so than any other member of MMA fighting to have a damn episode done. Jose Young's. So Jose, it's your damn debut. It's for the Korean zombie. How happy are you? Ooh, that's a loaded question.

Because dams they were good usually means they're not fighting anymore. So I am, it's a double-edged sword because I am always, always happy to talk about the Korean zombie Chan Sung-jung. But the fact that it's on a damned episode, like, I don't want to talk about someone just because they're dead. I want to talk about someone because they're great. So mixed emotions that now that he's officially hung it up, we all kind of saw it coming.

But I'm always happy to talk about zombie. My admitted favorite fighter of all time. This is why, I mean, we would have, let's be clear, we would have done a damn on zombie anyway, but it's always better when you have somebody who can talk about the fighter in question as their favorite fighter of all time. A.K., would you say Korean zombie is your favorite fighter of all time?

He's maybe in my top five, pretty strongly my top five, easily top five, most influential to my fandom. That's not up for debate. We'll, you know, when we get into the Mount Rushmore, I think there's, you know, some of his work that we'll discuss and how it's made us fans and progressed our fandom. But I will say, like, I would, if it were not for him, and again, I will elaborate further. I might not be working at me. I might not have the passion and have for working in him. I would not have met you guys. Jed, Jose, my best friends, along with Mike Hick, of course, and everyone else in the army fighting.

I would not have even met you if I had never seen Korean zombie fight, I think. So I don't know, like top five most favorite, likely top five most influential easily. And that's, I mean, that's part of why you were on the show. You also just demanded as soon as we're like, we're doing it. Like, I won in. And I didn't know this about you, AK. I did not know that this was such a similar. figure in your fanhood. So, uh, this should be great. And for me, I love Korean zombie.

Korean zombie is not my top five favorite fighters. And so this is going to be a very important episode. Because for most of the people we've done, they meant like an enormous amount to me. And Korean zombie, I just, I just like, just like and respect him. But it's not like, I don't have the same emotional connection as you all do. So you all can teach me some things. You can, you can take me on, on these emotional journeys with you. Uh, and, First, before we get into the categories, doing all this stuff, let's start with your emotional journeys and right at the beginning. Jose, what's your first exposure?

Like, how did Korean zombie come into your life and come to mean so much? I remember it well. I can't remember if I had rented the VHS or if it was even on a VHS or had watched it on the internet somewhere. I don't honestly remember where I watched the fight, but I remember it was Deep Gladiator and it was Mitch Mitya Hiro-Mogal. There it is.

So I think he was like 5-0-0, 6-0-whatever. And he was Chan Sung, and I was like, oh, this guy, like, he's probably going to get pieced up a bit just because, you know, his opponent didn't have the best record. But back then, especially in Asian MMA, records didn't really matter because they kind of like match big names up and this and that. And obviously, Mitchie-Hiro had fought Matt Wyman in the UFC

and Tiago Tavares in the UFC. So those are two names that people that watched or listened to Damned probably at least have heard of. So I was like, well, let's see if he can get back into it because it was his first fight after the UFC. And man, man, that was such a fun fight. Like Chan Southern Junk kind of won me over in that fight. And then from there, I didn't, I don't want to call him appointment viewing.

But whenever I would see his name on like one of those Asian MMA lineups, I'd be like, oh, yeah, it's that. guy and then I'd watch and then the second he signed to the WEC I remember telling my at the time very small circle of friends that liked MMA because I want to say this is like 2010 2009 and it hadn't obviously blown up to the levels it is now on ESPN and everything especially the WEC because I don't think though if anyone was watching the WC much back then but I remember telling my friends I'm like this guy he might lose but he will not be in a bad fight and we're going to talk about that fight later the laner garcia fight and that's what i was like this i'm like

this is this is my guy because it's that rare instance where you hype a guy up and not only does he deliver he just like laps everyone everyone was like glued to the television when this when this cat fought so uh i i'm not saying i was the first korean zombie fan in america by any means because that's a very odd thing to declare but i feel like i got on the train pretty early and he's never steered me wrong ever and I got some fun stories of people I've told to watch the Korean zombie fights and they've they've also become massive fans I mean I'm excited for those stories and yeah if you if you're on at the deep train uh then you're on you're on before most people oh yeah I mean deep is deep is the first time like I you know I was a forum

kid back in the day a hundred percent talking about the pancreas 07 Korean Neo Blood Tournament. That just wasn't the thing. If you're on Deep, deep is as early in exposure as you could have had recently to him. A.K., what about you? You're not new to MMA fandom, but you came to the game later than Jose or I did.

So I'm assuming your first exposure was WEC? Yeah, of course, Lenner Garcia. I want to add out some things that Jose was saying, though. first of all that that experience sounds great the getting to introduce the zombie fuel because that was the opposite of like when I tried to introduce Anderson Silva to a non-MMA fan I was like you got to see this guy's amazing

it was a Patrick Cote fight and it was very upsetting and that friend to this day has never watched MMA again he's like well you screwed me for the last time buddy I'm out of here so that's great the omogga fight I don't know if Jose if the Omagawa fight is going to be talked about more later but like that's a win

that actually aged extraordinarily well Because, oh, my God, was he, because I think he was, his initial run was against, like, lightweights. And when he actually dropped down to featherweight, and I want to read out these names, again, not to do a little mini, damn, they were good. He was much better at featherweight. It was much better. Elsie Davis, Marlon Sanjo and Hioki were three of his big wins he had in a very short span of time.

No, those neat names now to the average M.A. fan mean literally nothing. But at the time, beating Hioki Sandro and Elsie Davis was like, that was a huge deal. That was a big, big, big deal at the time. I know this now in retrospect, by the way. I was not like Jose. The nom fan. sure by the way i like them fan but probably i don't put him on the level of those guys as far as

like how well regarded he was he's not very good fine fighter fine fighter so very good run for omigawa and again so you look at that zombie run win now you're like wow that was already like he was already facing very very tough competition for coming to wc and you fc but yeah like most that lennon garcia fight and i know we're going to talk about it more uh changed my life and not not a not hyperbole at all jed to say that fight changed changed my life. I'll leave it at that for now. I,

you guys are doing a great job of setting up teasers for us moving forward. For me, the Leonard Garcia fight was the first fight I saw live of, of him because I couldn't go watching Singoku, but I don't know, I was pretty deep into MMA fandom in the early 2000s, and on the forums, UG, Sherdog,

and the Singoku stuff is where I sort of, first there, but in Singoku, he didn't really stand out. Like, the, the fights were fun. Don't give me the Shuntari-Shibatari fight, really, really fun. Even the kind of horror fight was actually, it was a little boring at first because Kahn of Harrah was kind of boring, but you could see him do something there. And this is 09, so how old is zombie at that point in time? You know, 22, 23, young man, but I didn't watch the videos of those after the fact or, you know, read about it and be like this guy this guy is going to be a meaningful player in in the sport for like a shit ton of people and yet that's what it was and then you get to watch the linear garcia fight because wc's readily

available and uh best fight of 2010 it's not but it's it's up there it's it's one of the best three round fights you will ever watch uh and so that we'll talk a lot about that fight Yes. Moving forward. And I will die on the hill 3027 Korean zombie. I will die on that hill. You don't have to die on that hill. That's an appropriate hill.

Yes. Well, we'll get into that. The other thing that I wanted to talk about before we sort of move into this is, and kind of all the structure in the category of this is. We did Robbie Lawler two episodes ago. Last episode we did Yawani and J. Chick dropped. Very different, though similar. in aspects to it but Robbie Lawler made me sort of consider something as we were as his career

was winding down and I think he and TKZ are a really interesting parallel because of what they both were they are two of the at worst 10 most exciting fighters of all time and you can certainly make a strong argument for higher than that and so I pose this at the end of the Lawler comment And it's still a conversation I've kind of been having with myself and particularly as the zombie fight came up of What is greatness in MMA? Like what does that mean? Because By no definition or by by most definitions that we aren't working with Korean zombie isn't one of the greatest fighters of all time, right? You know, he One of the big conversation pieces and I'll get to that in a second as well is whether he belongs in the Hall of Fame on his own merits and at this as a

As I can readily acknowledge, he is not as quote unquote great a fighter as other people, Alexander Volcanovsky, Jose Aldo even. Are there more meaningful careers than zombies out there? Like two did, are there five fighters in MMA who more deeply connected with a fan base than zombie did? And so that's my question, I guess, for real as we get into this, is how did he manage to connect so deeply with fans, despite never, you know, being quote unquote great. He was, the way I'd tell people, explain Korean zombie to people that maybe missed the train early on and, you know, they only kind of got into the later half because trust me, when I,

when New York, Rick and I posted a lot of the social media graphics of zombies's performance and his loss in retirement, a lot of the comments were, why is this guy so popular? He's only won X amount of fights in X amount of years. It's the same argument with BJ Penn. lost all these fights in a row, but you just, you weren't there when BJ was arguably pound for pound best fighter in the world. Now, the way I described Korean zombie is Korean zombie ran so Justin Gaci could fly. He is the original Justin Gaci. He is that he is at one point in time, it didn't matter who he was fighting.

It was going to be a banger. And that is, is he a Hall of Famer? I don't know. is he an excellent prize fighter probably not in terms in in the definition of prize because it's a prize because people aren't a million people aren't buying his pay-per-views but he every fight he was in left an impression if you didn't know who he was you left a fan at there are a couple duds in there especially in the late end of his career but if you can't There is like one dud.

There's two. There's two. I'm interested to hear. There's two duds. There's two duds and we'll get to them. But can you go over the history of MMA without bringing up the Korean zombie? You can't. Like he is in that space.

You can't skip over what he's done. If you're trying to write a long scroll of the entire history of mixed martial arts, and we'll start with UFC 1, that's just where we'll start. obviously things happen before that. You can't. You can't not include the Korean zombie. Not based off of, like, if you're, obviously, if you're talking Jose Aldo, you go, you know, he beat the Korean zombie.

Alex Lokanowski beat the Korean zombie. He also set records. And two of, he arguably has two fight of the years. Justin Gachie has that. And who else has that? Robbie Lawler. Is Loller, Gachie, and the zombie is next? Yeah.

That's the conversation. That is the conversation. All three of them, not top 10 fighters ever. Three of the five, and I'll say three of the five most exciting fighters in the history of MMA, you can't not include Korean zombie in the history of MMA if you're talking about it. Okay, what are your thoughts on this, you know, zombie and the dichotomy of greatness versus being beloved? I think we talked about this on another show, but I will say I'm very happy to call him a UFC Hall of Famer, if that matters to anyone, if people are using that as a mark of greatness.

But keep in mind, I am someone who has, you know, who keeps track of other sports Hall of Fame. So I have accepted that the bar and up may not be as high as people think when they just casually talk about Hall of Fame stuff. Like I'm all for having like the Bob Laniers in the NBA basketball, basketball, excuse me, not the NBA Hall of Fame. The basketball Hall of Fame. I don't know who Bob Lanier is. Most people don't. And if you're cutting it off at like, well, this person had to have been, you know, a top. top 10 player in their in their career they had to have won X amount of championships

Bob Lanier did none of those things but he was a star during his time and this and the basketball Hall of Fame so the same could be said about zombie in some ways okay he never won he never won the you know became undisputed champion I had a couple of kicks of the can never became undisputed champion maybe well you know was never maybe a McGregor rousey Lesner or even tier below that John Jones I just send you a level star I get it I understand all that but that stuff doesn't matter to me because I think Jose put it really well that like he's such an he's such an integral part of emma history and especially uh for those who

you know who puts zuffa history above all else he's a huge part of that he's because he was a i don't want to say one of the five um you know most important fighters coming over from wc you would probably go like pedis seroni benson henderson aldo and throw another name of their condit maybe um so he wasn't like quite there but he was a notable acquisition from there and and became more famous later So he's part of the WC history. He's part of the UFC title history. He's fought for it twice. He's, you know, been of rank for so long.

And he just stands out. I think we have to reward fighters who stand out, who are memorable for that reason. You asked why, again, we'll probably break that down over the course of the show. I hope so anyway. But from when someone from like their very first appearance, this appearance catches your eye in such a way and then has the longevity that he had, I just don't know how anyone. can call that anything but great.

And that's not even getting into just me, you know, just being a fan and loving every moment of his fights and his appearances and everything. So, yeah, just objectively looking at it. I think he hits the mark of greatness pretty easily. Okay. I think I'm going to know your answer on this, but so I'll change the question slightly. And this will be the last one before we dive into it. Do you think Korean zombie is going to make the UFC Hall of Fame on his own marriage?

It's not in the fight wing, I think, I believe very firmly he will get in for that. But if you're looking at the U.C. Hall of Fame right now, it is pretty much just as fighters exclusively champions. Donald Soroni and Stefan Bonner are the notable exceptions there. Soroni, who at the time of his retirement, owned like a number of significant records for most bonuses, most fights, et cetera. and Stefan Bonner gets in for the fight with Force Griffin. So that's, but basically everyone else is a champion.

So if TKZ does get inducted, it will be a significant moment because of that. So do you think he gets in on his own merits? Yeah, I'm pretty confident he will get in. Because it's that or you induct like three, like at some point you're going to induct, there's at least three fights, I feel like in his EURC career that could be the Hall of Fame. So at some point, are you just making him a three-time Hall of Fame or basically? on those three fights or just i mean you might do that anyway but also he should get on his own because again fought for the title twice i he doesn't have the records of seroni he doesn't have the records

of jim miller either because i think jim miller's going to make it in that again is going to sort of shift the bar for the hall of fame but i think zombie will make it in eventually also i think they'll want the hall of fame to have somewhat of an international flavor yeah so at the risk of like making an accusation of tokenism i think they'll want to put him in at some point because it looks good to have fighters from the U.S., from Brazil, from South Korea, from Japan and all that. So based on all that, I think in the totality, he will get on his own, as well as at least one or two of his fights.

I don't know if he gets in based on his own, just because I don't know if zombie will be the, I don't know if zombie's a big enough name to be the first non-champion, like in one of the first non-champions to make the Hall of Fame on their own. He'll obviously get in for fights. he might get in like AK said if they need like if they go to Seoul and they just want that moment of

zombie on the screen like hey he's being inducted into the Hall of Fame and they'll do that but like AK brought up the Naismith Hall of Fame like Yao Ming is not statistically probably not a Hall of Famer but he's in the Hall of Fame for his importance

to the sport zombie probably will get in on his own especially if they need like AK said an international flavor to it. If they do an event in Seoul and he's the guest of honor and they want to have that moment. Or if they do anything involving an anniversary of the WEC, like they just do like a bunch

of WEC fighters getting in like Condit and Zombie and like Cubbs Swanson and all these guys get your eyes obviously already in there. If they do anything involving a WEC Hall of Fame or an anniversary, he'll be, he has to be involved in that, even though he had two, three fights max. So I don't know. Eileen, yes, but it would not surprise me if he doesn't get it on his own. I originally thought that he was pretty much a lock because there was a time when Dana White called him his favorite fighter.

And the Hall of Fame, if nothing else, is really just Dana White picking people he would like to do this in some respects. So I was like, yeah, he loves him. Why wouldn't Dana just do this? The more I've thought about it, the more I think he's certainly not like an automatic first ballot. Hall of Famer like Jose Aldo or Anderson Silva, et cetera, would be. And I think that there's a, I won't say worried, because ultimately does this matter? No, I think that there's a very real possibility that they just induct his fight with Dustin Porier and then call it a day.

I'm like, oh, we're good. We don't. He's in here. He made the guest list. And so we don't need to honor him specifically. Which would be a shame because I think, Jose, you got to really the point. of all of this is I don't think you can adequately tell

the story of mixed martial arts in the 2010s without Korean zombie as part of it. And so that is a guy who should be honored in the hall on his own merits. When I got a great deal on a great gift at winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list?

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regrouped for a better quality of price, on link on Cifora.C. or in a magazine. But enough of that, we've had a good amount of preamble here and we've kind of danced around a lot of categories,

so we should just hop into them. Before we do, I want to just drop a couple of things. I won't do a full recap of zombies career because it's, it's an interesting one, but he debuts in 2007, joins the WC in 2010,

goes to the UFC after two fights and the whole acquisition thing. Then takes a four years off after 2013 for his military service, which we will get into, and injuries, which will also play a part in this, comes back never the same exactly, but still is. It's a very weird two-part career that he has,

but in the end, what we end up with is this dude had 25 career fights, 10 performance bonuses across the UFC and WEC in like 14 fights amongst those organizations. A 2011 submission of the year, the 2012 fight of the year, the 23, or sorry, 2012 third best submission of the year, and I will go on to argue that it should win a submission of the year that year as well. And the number two, I believe, fight of the year in 2010. So an absolutely outrageous thing.

And one of only three fighters, because I didn't do a. stat category this week. He is one of only three fighters, according to Tapology, wonderful people, who has won an of the year award in their three times in their career, the other being Robbie Lawler and there's a world where Justin Gagie catches up. But a couple of people with two, he won fight of the year and two subs of the year per Tapology. So his career has been incredible, and let's talk about it, the Mount Rushmore. You got four fights, everybody, and normally I lead with my four and then we kind of go but this is this is Jose Young's podcast

I'm just I'm just driving the car so Jose I'm really interested because we just coming off the Yoanna one Yonah was an incredibly difficult damn because a lot of her stuff felt very there weren't that many choices for a lot of the categories

or there weren't any choices there is a plethora of options for basically all of this so I think the Mount Rushmore's are going to be really diverse let's hear yours. So you gave, when you gave me the, the Mount Rush more like idea of what it is,

it was four fights or four performances, so I kind of split those up. So for the fights, for the fights, I have two wins and two losses, which I think kind of some, which I think sums on zombies's career. So number one is zombie porier.

That's my favorite fight ever. That is your favorite fight ever. That is my favorite fight ever. That is, that was because, we're going to put a pin and, and we got to go into that. That is my favorite fight in the history of mixed martial arts to this point where two years ago, some rent, I'd never check my Twitter, like, filtered DMs, like people that I don't follow.

For whatever reason, I checked to this day, because I just wanted to see all the weird spam in my folder. And there was a kid who had messaged me that week who said, hey man, I'm going to get real high with my friends on Saturday. What fight should I watch? I'm like, Porier zombie. That's the fight. And they were like, he was like, bet. And then like Sunday morning he was like, bro, perfect fight. Bro, perfect fight.

That's my favorite fight ever. That was your favorite fight ever. That's fantastic. Zombie Port Day, everything, it was the main event, I believe it was in Fairfax or something like that. I also think it was the first fight Dana wasn't in attendance for during his, when he got Meneers disease or something like that. So even he was like, I'm pretty annoyed. I'm not there for Korean zombie. Dustin Porre. I was a huge fan of Porre in the WBC. Obviously, I was hyping up zombie the entire time. He was coming

off, you know, back-to-back historic performances, which we'll get into too. And I was like, there is no chance this fight is bad. And I had people over my apartment. I wasn't covering it at the time. It wasn't a UFC watch party. It was just kind of like, we're hanging out and the UFC having to be on. And I was like, you should watch this fight. This is going to be bananas. And it was. Because if you've Remember, Dustin Poy was darsing everyone leading up to that fight, and zombie was not in a boring fight. So naturally, Korean zombie throws a flying knee into a dars choke, which it is my, it's not the greatest fight ever,

but it was the most emotionally invested I was in a fight, a non-title fight. I had hyped it up, it had delivered, both men delivered. It checks every box. It is, if you want to watch a non-title fight, and you just want to be entertained, that's the fight for me. That's the fight I always tell everyone. So if you want to put that on Mount Rushmore four times, so be it.

But I think we can all agree that's probably his best fight. I certainly think so. And then after that, the other two spots are the two Leonard Garcia fights. The first one was arguably the fight of the year. Leonard Garcia, quote unquote, won. But as I said, 3027 zombie. die on that hill and I like years later I retroactively looked at like MMA decisions and a lot of the journalists agree there's one draw there's a handful of people that's a 2029-28 zombie

oh I have to look this sub see if it's you it'll be hilarious you look at it like there's no chance it's me now to be fair that fight was so insane over three rounds that I can't imagine being a judge in that arena. I can't... That fight was... I accept that argument, actually. That's a good argument of... You're just kind of watching and like, I don't...

Oh, shit, I'm supposed to score this? Exactly. The way you can describe that fight is the way you take a hammer and a wrench and you throw it in a blender and you turn it on and then they both come out all mangled and you're trying to figure out which one did more damage to the other one.

Admitted I was a zombie fan, so I was really salty, then upon learning everyone else seemed to agree with my scoring assessment made me feel a little better but 37 zombie I'll die on the hill my third slap go ahead let's pause right here because these two are both on my list

as well have to be I think I have to be 100% I don't think you can credibly make them out Rushmore that doesn't have these two fights and the others are I believe open for debate one I looked it up and the 30 uh the 2828 was

MMA weekly score so I don't I'm not sure what any of these scores fight metrics scored the fight 3028 for zombie I don't really know how that even happened I guess usually you think of a 10 10 as like a rose carla nobody did anything not a these two dudes beat the souls out of each other I don't know who lost more soul I want to talk about this because of the dichotomy between these two fights for me you say that Porre fights your favorite fight ever and it's a terrific fight I had not gone back to the well on either of these in a while and so when I went back to watch them in preparation for this

the Porier fight is still great I did not remember it being just a not quite an ass kicking but I mean really zombie just is beating Porier up until he gets a tired in the third in my head it was a much more competitive fight than I think it actually was but it was just

Porre is really tough and Zombie did some slick, dope shit in that fight. That's what I'm saying. I made a specific note there's an instance where he just comes forward eats a clean right hand from Porreier who's, you know, one of the bigger punchers out there

and this is a featherweight. Just like, fuck it, bro. Flying knee, Porreier shoots a double and he just flips it. He just goes with the double roll over dead and fucking out. And it was just like, Zonby is a fucking man. That's right.

Go ahead. This is where I, this is where whenever I do preview shows and post-fight shows and everything, when I say, I don't care if there's a crowd, I just want high-level mixed martial arts. This is that. Like, this is violence with beautiful martial arts. This isn't Michael Chandler closing his eyes and just throwing haymakers. This is guys getting hurt, but also just doing crazy stuff in there that 1% of humanity could ever do. while they were not getting hurt.

And then there's a 0.5 percentage of planet Earth that can, you know, get into full mount in the later rounds while Dustin Porre is punching you in the jaw. This is a beautiful, beautiful fight. I rewatch the fight that moment. I gasped, I gasped as I was rewatching it. Dude, it's so sick. I remember this is the same reaction I had when I watched this fight over 10 years ago

when I knew even less about MMA back then. I was just like, can you do that? Like, is that? Because I've seen guys get taken down. I mean, by that point, I'd seen a lot of takedowns. And I'm like, whoa, he just like did it. He just flipped him. He just did it.

Like, what a counter? Like, could more people do this? Is this even possible? Like, what a crazy move. And then, and then in the context of the entire fight, you're like, wow, that was like one of five, like insane sequences in this fight. It's so good. I want to say Kenny Florin was on commentary. He did a great job.

Later in the fight, he's had a really good line. Yeah. And I'm paraphrasing here. He said, these fights always start with who has more skill than it becomes about who has more heart. And this fight is kind of like that. The first fight is like, you know, some pretty solid grappling from both guys. Nothing like crazy happens.

And then everything, again, it breaks down as far as like their ability to like, you know, just implement what they want to do. The skill is still there. And the skill is still there. The technique is still there. But now it's couched within them having to dig deep and and do what they can to survive and eventually, you know, try and kill the other person. And we do get a finish, in a spectacular finish, as Jose mentioned.

Yes. So when I was coming back to this fight, it was better and worse in that I just, in my mind, I had thought of it as this all-out war. And instead, it was just like, high-level martial arts. Really fun mixed martial arts fight with a couple of like really high spots in it. Like, oh, here's this incredible dope thing. But in my head, it was like, that's easily the 2012 fight of the year. And looking back on it, still standby. Absolutely 20% of the year.

Where my opinion changed. I think the single most on anything of his career is the Garcia fight rewatch. Because I'm fully with you. That's 1327 zombie. But I, in my head, I think that that narrative took hold of, hey, this was when Leonard Garcia was doing the whole robin people thing. Yeah. Because there was like a significant portion of career where he just got garbage decisions. And this was amongst them.

And so as I was like, I didn't think back on this fight as being as good as it was. and then when I rewatched it, I watched it twice in a row because it's it's bananas. It is a 15 minute round. It is one round of carnage. Bananas. And you're,

you know, you said just a minute ago, like, ah, you're in it for the high level mixed martial arts. I'm not sure that's what this fight is. It's fun as shit. Leonard Garcia,

they are, they're giving Leonard Garcia one. Goldberg is, awful on commentary. It's tough. This was the WEC event where they brought Goldberg into do Cotley, they did the Rogan Goldberg thing because it was Aldo Faber

and they were making it big. He's awful. He's clearly never watched a zombie fight at all. He's like, look at Leonard Garcia how he's throwing these punches, winging him like fastballs. And if he actually punched properly, he might really hurt zombie, but instead it's just this really artistically

pleasing brawl of nonsense for me to do. And I went back and looked and I was like, man, what's the best fight of 2010 if that wasn't it? And I'm, I understand that Benson Henderson, Anthony Pettis, the final fight in the WC. No, that's not better than this. It is a much better mixed martial arts contest. And there's a narrative ebb and a flow and such a high point at the end. I get picking that to be the 2010 fight of the year.

but if if somebody's in my Instagram DMs and being like hey bro I'm about to get high and I would like to watch a fight from 2010 I gotta be honest this is the one garcy zombie one is it's so much better than I remember it's ludicrous uh Jose you this is the fight you said that you you let people know that they should check this out right you're yeah so I didn't have that luxury at the time I was that's a win I was just starting to get hardcore to M and to the point where I was making my friends uncomfortable and they didn't want to me or talk to me when I was talking about MMA. And these are friends who introduced me in Tama. It's just like I got too far into it.

They're like, bro, like it's kind of like just like casually enjoying it. It's a hobby. I'm all in. Like I need more. I'm all. You're just consuming everything. So this was that point of that fandom for me. And I don't think I don't know if I ordered it.

I don't remember if I paid for this, but I definitely watched it live. And then afterwards, well, I know I definitely didn't because. Maybe you did. You're Canadian. This was a pay-per-view. It was a pay-per-view. This was the pay-per-view. And I'm pretty sure I...

This was the pay-per-view? Yeah. I'm pretty sure I acquired it to nefarious means. And then, thus, was able to transport it via USB or whatever. We're using USBs back then, 2010? We were using back then to transport stuff. Flobby disks. Flopsy.

We were probably using USBs by 2010. Somehow I was bringing it around to people, and I was like, you guys have to see this fight. You guys, it was. So I had it, it was retroactive more for my friends because then I would show them like, Guys, this is crazy. Like, I know it's not UFC. You guys only watch UFC. I didn't know who this guy was.

Chan Song Jung. You guys probably know Leonard Garcia. Watch this fight. And I showed to at least two or three different people. And it was just like, I was just beaming with pride and joy. And I was like, this is absolutely insane. So it's a magical fight. Yeah, it's incredible.

I gained a lot of appreciation for that fight, which is why I love doing these. Okay, Jose, we're all in agreement on those two. What are the other two for your Mount Rush? Zombie Garcia, too, would be my third spot because that was his introduction to the UFC. You know, after the 3027, I was like, immediate, like, rematch it right away. We're going to get into the fight that he had after the first Leonard Garcia fight, because that's a very strange fight against George Rute. And then when he debuted in the UFC, I was like, because I remember when Stefan Bonner and Forrest Griffin rematched,

and it's not a good fight at all. so rarely if ever does a rematch ever match or exceed the first one there are obviously a few like Robbie Lawler

and Johnny Hendricks both of those fights are bangers but I was like how are they going to top this and then zombie pulled out a twister the first ever something that we had never seen before

like I've obviously been like Eddie Bravo had obviously been that they used to cut to him to break down technique in the early days of the UFC and I had known Eddie Bravo because of like Rogan would always talk about him and the 10th planet like oh is 10th planet better than you know Gracie Jujitsu and they have all these weird names for their submissions and everything and so when he when he was setting it up I was I thought

he was going for a rear naked choke and I was like oh he doesn't really have this and then he gets this weird contorted body thing and I was like oh this is bananas and then he taps and Joe Rogan freaks out saying like, I remember, he's like, somewhere Eddie Bravo is very happy right now. And I was like, damn, that submission, I've never seen this before in my entire life. I had obviously heard, like, when CB Dolewey got like the Peruvian necktire or whatever, like on tough. And there are various other submissions that I had heard of, but I had never seen implemented

in an MMA fight. I had never heard of the twister. I had never seen anyone practice the twister. I had zero knowledge of any of the setups by it. whatsoever. And then he pulled it off in his UFC debut against the guy that robbed him, checked all the boxes, storyline-wise, technique-wise, introducing me to a new skill set of grappling. It was just a beautiful performance. And obviously, since then, we just had one a couple weeks ago. That was a twister. And I think Bryce Mitchell, did he also get a twister? Or am I making that up?

No, Bryce Mitchell is a twister. I think there are four now in UFC history? There's three or four, and he had the first. And there's only one. first. There can be more impressive, but you can only be the first once, and he was the first, which is why I say you cannot tell the story of MMA without the Korean zombie, because everyone, I think compares from here on now, every twister ever, will be compared to the Korean zombies, because I also still think of the three or four, that's the most impressive. It was the, no one knew what was coming was at the center. Alan Belcher almost did it to Hussein-Parhaaris, a UFC, whatever, and I remember Joe Rogan saying

like if he pulls this off the Jiu-Jitsu community is going to just melt because if you twist her who's well-paharis that's absolutely insane so that one because you can't not include that in the history of MMA and then for my fourth slot it's a loss it's the Air Rodriguez

fight and I put that because I think that I think it's not these he's had more exciting performances he's had more dominant performances but I think that fight really exempt like it just

kind of shows you what zombies about like he was very comfortably winning an incredibly exciting fight that fight is a is an underrated fight to watch from beginning to end because everyone just remembers the finish but that was a fun fight he was supposed to fight Frankie Edgar it was in Denver

it was my oddly enough it was my first event I covered with Esther and Casey it's the that was the car that Mike Perry called me friendly um and he He was very comfortably winning a violent, exciting fight against a guy that he probably, he was supposed to fight Frank Edgar that card. And then Frank Yadig had hurt and he pulled out and they're like,

fight the returning Yaya Rodriguez who had, I don't think, had fought since the Frank Edgar fight. And I think this is when he had been cut and he had come back. Dangerous fight. Probably shouldn't take it. Younger guy takes the fight anyway. Is winning, is like three seconds away from winning or something like that. And Yaira and he still runs forward.

and he gets caught with a technique that no one will ever catch ever again. Like he could have coasted and he didn't. So fight of the night, not fight of the year obviously, but one of the more underrated fights, didn't care he was winning, just still said, fuck it, I'm running in, I'm trying to kill this guy, and he got got. I think that's just the, that defines zombies's career.

Doesn't take the easy road out, goes in for the kill. He just got caught with a, like, a, I mean, one was like a spinning back elbow. Back elbow, like a 612 standing back elbow. Like, it's just silly to think about. And that kind of one of one. It is a one of one. Zombie collapsed to the ground.

His, I remember, like, his, his fiancé or wife, I don't know what they were at the time, like, running in. And they needed to translate it or rush in because he wasn't all. It was scary to watch. And then he couldn't fly home because his face was. all crushed, didn't care. Like, he shouldn't need to take the fight, didn't need to rush in, still did,

and he got got. I was sad he lost, but I think that just kind of exemplifies what the zombie's crew was all about, and to put Yaya Rodriguez on the map. From that point on, Yair is only in big fights. That's not on my list. It's a compelling argument. I think maybe this is a bold take.

I think it is a zombie's best performance, like in a cage. I think pillar to post, if you take away the literal last second Hail Mary, the biggest definition of a Hail Mary in the history of combat sports, honestly. He won that fight, Pillard to Post. And like what I think was a all-around really, really great performance. I remember watching him being like, oh, man, he came back. He blew the doors off Dennis Bermudez.

And now he's beating this dude. All right, zombies still got a lot left here. And then it was, oh my God, I can't believe I didn't, because I didn't even know what happened. A zombie just fell over and died. It was like, I don't understand. So it's an interesting case, didn't make my list, AK, you've got the two that we all agree on. What are you, do you agree with, with Jose for any of his other two? Or what are your remainders?

Yes to the yair. I don't have the twister on there. It probably should be. But yes to the yajir, great performance by zombie. it infuriated me at the time because one thing that always stood out was a lot of, there's a lot of hugging, a lot of, and this was, again, Yayr was losing the fight.

And I'm not saying Yayr was engaging in any sort of gamesmanship, but I do feel like there was moments where I was like, okay, zombie, stop chumming up with this guy and just like put him away. Because I wonder if he could have maybe finished Jaya in the fifth round if there wasn't a lot of, again, hugging, pausing the action to bask in the crowd. But again, that's a huge part of the fight. We talk about how much fun it was to watch this guy fight. And this fight was sheer joy for him, for a year, for everyone watching.

So I get it. At the time, I was very salty about it. Now I'm like, okay, fine. It's what makes the fight so memorable. So I love that. And of course, you have to include the ending. You'll just never see that again. And it's the nature of zombie that he was, it's only fitting that he would be the one

who would end up getting caught by this once in a lifetime strike because he was, you know, he was always coming forward. He's the only guy who would maybe put himself in that situation to ever be hit by something like that. The other one on my list is Mark Hominich. Maybe this is a little home cooking. Maybe this is more me dealing with this, what was a traumatic moment at the time. Of course, Mark Hominick, my fellow Canadian, UFC 140 in Toronto. This was December 2011. This was tough for Mark Hombin because that was on my list of performances. Just, yeah. It's not ideal for if you're Canadian. It's not ideal if you're Canadian. So this is my way of processing. This is my way of processing.

So there's a lot around this fight because, for one thing, I don't you guys remember, zombie was a huge underdog over the fight. I'm not talking like minus 200, minus 200. We're talking like six to one underdog. This is like champion versus like mandatory challenger. That's like it's zombie was not regarded as a top contender at this time. He was kind of like he was cool. He was very popular already.

This is just off the Garcia fight. And stuff the twister. Had it hadn't had in Tomic was coming off the Aldo Law No Muhammad was And his coach had just passed away Like this was his first This was his first fight

After his coach died And he walked out I'm coming home and everyone was crying It was all emotional And the zombie And then zombie threw a fastball between the eyes Seven seconds into the fight This was Mark

Seven seconds is wrong that fight was over and four oh yeah Jed you mentioned that he was coming off the Aldo which a clear decision he lost Aldo but he won like the last round so it was something

he won the fifth round and people were like something he could be proud of so he was coming off that he was only 28 years old going to the zombie fight there was no reason to think Mark Harmonic would not be a factor in the featherweight division for many many many years to come and then as Jose said he's and then he wasn't

The emotion clearly, of the moment clearly got to him because he throws this very uncharacteristic, just one wild punch, doesn't come close to hitting. His arms are completely down by like his, his chest. And then zombie just like, okay, loads up a right hand, pops them. And it's pretty, yeah, it's over. You can call it in four seconds. There's a little ground and pound before the ref stepped in seven seconds officially. It was a crazy moment.

And again, and really the beginning of people starting to take, I think, zombie seriously as okay this guy's a contender because then he gets the poor fight right after um it it's it's a tough moment to watch for canadian mark hominick never won another fight again by the way he lost to aldo lost a zombie lost two more fights that he was also pretty heavily favored in i think he was like chad grispy or something it was uh eddie yagin and he lost a pablo guard that six foot forward wacko yeah i can't take another way and that was it and that was it and i think he retired at like 30 31 again I don't think it's unreasonable to tie it to the passing of Sean Tompkins.

I can't imagine how that changed him and the whole team and his whole view on fighting. But yes, this was really the beginning of the end. The Aldo loss wasn't. The Aldo was like, oh, we're going to see this guy contending again. Like, he'll probably fight for a title again someday. The seven-second knockout was like, this is like this guy could be in trouble. I do want to say after that, because at this point I was like all aboard. Like, you know how you guys are all on like the.

Dalton Almeida train and the Tom Asperol train. Like at this point, I was firmly driving. Yeah, give me their reaction. What was it like for you when you saw? It was mixed because, like, I really liked Mark Homonick and Sean Tompkins' passing way is like, I remember that was such like talk about moments that like, if you remember that, you are from a generation of MMA fans. Like, you know, like, there's a very small circle of MMA fans that remember that.

And I was like, oh, man, like, I just wish you. wasn't fighting zombie. I didn't, I remember who I thought was going to win, but I was firmly aboard. But I remember this was a big deal in Korea. This was the Anderson Silver front kick. When he front kicked Vitor, that blew up Anderson in Brazil. And this made zombie a megastar in Korea.

Was it the fastest at seven seconds? I know it was officially seven seconds. So I think at the time it was, though. That there was like a lot of retroactive. stuff. There's also the Dwayne Ludwig thing, I'd say retroactively boomed, but it should still be the fastest. The fastest is obviously Masfordal's Neon-A-Anasker now at five seconds. How many it gets slumped at like four seconds, and the clock just keeps ticking for three. This fight is over at five seconds at the absolute latest.

Yeah. So this made zombie a star in Korea, and from this point on, I feel like Twister, seven-second knockout, like now all of it. of MMA is going to watch his next fight. And from there, it was like just main events. And you know the important part, this, not on my list, but I think this is time to get the next fight that they all watched was Dustin Borgh. I guess you're a star. I don't know if there has been a better 15-month stretch for any fighter than that.

And the poor, I didn't even mention that the point of fight is the first time he ever walked out to a zombie by the cranberries. A star was born. and that's it this is an incredible run of his career a.K., this was in Toronto. Did you go to this? I did not. Oh, wow.

Which should be probably good. So you said, yeah, it was the third one, and then the hominic fight was the fourth one? And yes, and then, yeah, and the homic, yeah. Those were both on my, the hominic fight was on my best performances, Mal Rush. Yeah, I have two different ones, you all because I cheated a little bit since I do this all the time and I think that

objectively you should put the Leonard Garcia twister on his Mount Rushmore for all of the reasons that Jose said I chose to free up that space by answering that with a different category coming up and then I just left Homnick off all together for similar reasons the other two I have one of them I did not expect anyone to have and I am very very okay with it it's the Noto Morcano fight, UFC Greenville. It's because I was on it. It's because I was on it.

This was a personally significant fight for me. This was really the first time I truly understood how popular Korean zombie was, which is because UFC Greenville, the arena in Greenville is not large. Not great. Yeah, the Bon Secor Arena or whatever. It's like 5,000 people. It's a gym. for some places.

And I just did it because it was a very short drive and Korean zombie was fighting. The rest of the card was whatever. Not what you'd write home about, but it's zombie and I could do it and I could go. And this is the only now experience I will ever have watching him fight live. It was awesome.

He dusts up Panato Omercano under a minute, which is sick. And the amount of love he got from Greenville, South Carolina, Maybe Greenville has a thriving Korean population that I am unaware of. But that place was the roof blew off that motherfucker. And if you can go watch the video now, you can just see hundreds of people with Korean flags, like people actively crying about him scoring this knockout.

That was the first time the enormity of his fandom really struck me, because the rest of it, it's, I don't know, I'm an internet kid who's like, He's a popular guy amongst the internet. I don't know how this registers. You take him to bum fuck South Carolina and people are still crying tears watching him. And unfortunately, no one watched it because it was the exact same day as you guessed it,

Artem Lobov versus Polly Malinaghi. I totally forgot that that fight happened that day. It was the exact same day because I remember asking the powers that be at Vox. I was like, please send me. to South, like, I have to go to zombies fight. And they were like, Jed can drive. We need you to help cover

Lobov and Malinaji. I was like, no, I don't want to cover this fight. I'm sorry, I took that. I had a great time. I get it. I get it. But like, at the time, I was like, I don't want to cover Arnhobv versus Pauly

Malinacci. In hindsight, it did very well socially for us, but selfishly, I wanted to want a zombie fight. Probably made sense for us from a business standpoint. So that's on, but again, that's largely just personal bias. And the other one, maybe it's recency bias.

I don't care. I put Max Holloway. I put the UFC Singapore main event. I almost put that. I feel great about waiting on the dam in part because that fight, to me, when you, Jose, when you were talking through the A year and this is what zombies is about, I can't disagree with that. That's why I put the Holloway fight on it.

On top of it's the second greatest retirement behind Robbie Lawler, maybe. There aren't a lot of them. But everything you said about that, I think, is here. Look, we got to see zombie wildly counted out by everyone going in. I guess fair. He did get busted. But the fight was incredibly fun. And at the end of that second round, when he almost gets finished,

almost gets knocked out, almost gets submitted, and survives through and what you hear Max say afterwards like this dude really is a zombie, it's incredible. That showed you all of that part. And then in the corner, before round three, when his corner's trying to like give him stuff, you can kind of see zombie just,

register what's going on here. Like, none of this matters. It's time. It is time for me to do the thing. And he comes out and just immediately is like, all right, the battle is over. I can only, I can go out on my shield and that is what I'm going to do here. And just brought the fight to Max for the next 40 seconds or whatever it was, went out.

Went out in the best way possible other than getting a win. And then when you factor in the rest of it, the post-fight exit, the fans chanting, chant singing the Cranberry zombie as he takes it all in, like, there are not three better retirements in this sport than that, even with him getting face-planted. That almost makes it more fitting in some ways. So I had to put that one on, and that ends my Mount Rushmore.

I will say, because I couldn't really, you could put it in other categories. I have an honorable mention for the Dennis Bermuda's fight. Just because that fight is really significant to his career, it's the first one back from the military service. and what that meant to him and sort of where he would go. If I wasn't picking my personal choice of I was at UFC Greenville, I would say that the Bermuda's fight should belong on Mount Rushmore as well.

Any honorable mentions from y'all that aren't going to be tagged into other upcoming categories, or should we move on from Mount Rushmore? The Frankie Edgar knockout. Sorry, okay. I was going to say, why would you do this? That was in Seoul. That was a fight that Zombie had asked for for a long time. It was Frankie grew out his hair, weirdly enough for that fight.

Because if you go back and watch. Weird lettuce. Yeah. Weird lettuce. It was like a fro. I didn't, I thought Zombie would win. I didn't think he would win that quickly. Who is he supposed to fight?

I don't even remember. Was he not supposed to fight Frankie? I doubt Frankie was a last minute replacement. It was Brian Ortega. It was Brian Ortega. Because they had that fantastic face-off. This is before the beef happened, where Brian, like, held up the heart symbol with his fingers. And it was just a, it was a really fun face-off.

And that kind of began my, we need to see Brian Ortega versus Korean Zombie. And I would bring it up every single preview show until it finally happens. Until it finally happens. So the Frankie one is, and that sent Frankie to Bannamweight. So that's probably mine, honorable mention. I'm so angry. you brought it up sorry about it i was going to bring that fight up i bring that fight here's a little here's a little bit of here's a little bit of the prediction i wrote for that

fight i'm going to do what i always do in these situations colin pick frankie edgar sure that didn't work so well for last time and some might argue he wasn't even close to beating max holloway and that's fair to say if you're using things like facts and reality i then go on to talk about how how easily zombie could knock him out before concluding with this classic Edgar fight. He'll play the Matador against an incredibly terrifying Korean bull while chipping way at Young's hardy exterior mixing and takedown as slow his rampage. Zombies at his best when going toe to toe with fighters who will engage him and prolong the exchanges. That's not the plan Edgar will bring to this matchup. He sticks and moves for five rounds and picks up the

win. He did not stick and move for five rounds. The fight did not go anywhere near five rounds. And Frankie Edgar did not make him. He tried to stick a move. Instead, he got stuck. upsetting and you remind me about the hair too so everything that's happening is incredibly upsetting we're going to talk more about that fight uh because i have it winning a future award aka so settle in our next category the i'm not impressed by your performance award this is for uh the low point of of a fighter's career the the thing that if you could take one back which one would it be i'm not impressed by your performance i'm going to lead us off because i have have a discussion point that directly countermand's something that Jose just said, I chose

Brian Ortega because for as much as you wanted that fight and as much as they wanted this fight, it was always very weird. The beef is very odd with the altercation and all of that was weird. And he gets in there and it's his worst performance. Some people might try and tell you. And maybe these, my other compatriots on this show right now will make this case that Alexander Volcanovs is the answer. No, because Alexander Volcanovsky is a good fighter. And Brian Ortega sucks.

And so you can't get knuckle dusted by somebody who's not very good of fighting. It's totally explicable to lose Alexander Volkinovsky. He's doing that to Max Holloway and Yaira, everybody else who's really good. Brian Ortega, taking TKZ to school with the boxing was very, very disheartedly. So that was my choice and Jose you may react to that how you see fit the Volcanowski and Ortega fights are both my answer for this the or taking one because I was so excited for that to the point and also this was like right in the middle of me being stuck on Fight Island for like five weeks oh I forgot you were there for like for like once or what the way so like I remember being like I don't care I get to watch Brian Ortega and and and and Korean zombie fight because the first time they were going to fight was going to be in Seoul and I wasn't getting it to watch it and I was so excited and I remember the zombie had really good media day

and everyone and Eddie Chaw was there and he's like everyone keeps talking about why how zombie has better striking but like what if he starts grappling zombie I'm like what if he does start grappling or taking or or taking zombie start grappling and I was like getting really hyped for this fight and then he took it wasn't even knuckle dusted he took an elbow to the face. And I don't think, I think he was unconscious for the next four rounds.

Like that knocked him out. That, to be fair, he is the Korean zombie and he just stood up and essentially just went on autopilot. But Brian Ortega, that was,

I think I tweeted out. I'm like, that was a first-round knockout. Zombies body just didn't let him know that he was knocked out. That was a just, and also Brian Ottegit has shaved his head. So it just looked.

Yeah. It was an odd. The beef was strange because like he got like it was like he's like slapped j park and when zombie wasn't it was j park was i couldn't think of the name jay park was the fighting he was the genesis of it so that one was a bummer all around because you know see i asked for there are a handful of fights i've consistently asked for over the last 10 years it's ortega and zombie it was paul daily MVP and it was nick dyes Robbie Lawler too. All three of which

were sad. All three of which were sad. I do have one that I selfishly want, but I don't say it out loud because I don't want to jinx the universe. But like, none of them were great. And then the Volcanowski fight, I was there for that too.

And that was the first time I was just sad watching zombie fight. I was like, okay, the sport has passed him. He cannot do this anymore. Because that was when, because he's getting pieced up, but there's always that thing in the back of your mind where he's like, oh, he's the Korean zombie.

Like he won't go down. Didn't go down. It was a stand in TKO. But the image of Volcanowski coming out in like the fourth round be like, do you want to keep doing this? Like, are you okay, man? Actually asking him is. Yeah. I was like, that was bad.

Touching the cold shit I've ever seen. Yeah. He's not, he's not saying it in like a trying to be an ass about. He's like, hey man, like, you good. Are you sure? Yeah. Okay. And I remember Volcanowski was like, because like everyone has like outside of that one Brian Ortega fight, like the whole time he's like, because he, everyone can't want him to fight other people. And he's like, this is a legacy fight. Like, I just want to fight zombie because he's so good and people love him.

Same thing Max said. He's like, this is just a guy you have to fight if you're the top of the featherweight division. And that was two things. That is when I quickly realized that Alex Volcanowski is the best fighter in the world. and at the same other end of the sword the Korean zombie's career is done like maybe he gets one more but if he had retired right there wouldn't have blamed him I was like 10 feet away from him

crying into his wife's arms and Volcanowski letting him exit the Octagon first it was just a sad moment all around yeah I understand it my fundamental issue I get it I get it I think that I credit that to Volkmore I think that that's honestly the best.

I get it. The best performance I've ever seen from a mixed martial artist. The other thing I'll say. Brian Ortega sucks. The other thing else, yeah, the other thing else, I don't agree with that. But the other thing I'll say about the Volcanowski fight, why it's not, neither of these are my pick, brother, was that it's a title fight. It's a title fight.

It's hard to erase the beginning. Is there a fight you'd want to erase from the record? It's a title fight still. Sure, he was overwhelmed by, you know, now a guy we know is one of the best fighters ever. So you can't really erase it. It was a sad moment. It was a sad realization. It was like seeing an older mentor figure of yours faltering and realizing, oh, they're not

that dude anymore, like someone you know personally and like, oh, wow, I'd never seen them in that light before, but now reality is happening. So it's kind of like that for probably millions of M.M. And may fans out there seeing that performance. But I went with- It was a jarring one. I bet I know where you went here, A.K. Of course.

Well, I mean, it has to be mentioned. the George Rup headkick K.O. from W.C. 51. This was, so, for one, this is a weird thing because as much as we talk about zombie being, you know, one of the big acquisitions from WC, he actually technically went O&2 in the promotion.

He went O&2. He got the split. He should have beat Leonard Garcia, but it is a split loss in the record. And then he came into the root fight with a lot of hype, a lot of hype. And I totally tuned into that fight. I was like, yeah. And I was like, George Rup, ultimate fighter. I mean, great credentials, but still, Head kick knockout made for a great headline.

You know, the only way to take out of zombies with a headshot, George Rube got to ride that for a long time, even though in George Roope's next fight, who did he lose to? I was going to bring up in less than 90 seconds. And then that's another reason Mark Kahnik, by MMA Math, was expected to just run through zombie in Toronto. So, yeah, weird little connection there. But yeah, that clip is, you still see that clip circulating every now and then.

Great head kick knockout. It's a flat-out, K-O. zombie knocked stone cold and um i'm very i'd be very fine with not having seen that again as cool a moment as i was for the wc um that was a rough one it's it's the weirdest one i think that's my really it gets very odd to look back on the i'd be like that happened and i know we're still on the not impressed by your performance category but the the who the fuck is that guy award that is my answer the george rupe knockout who the fuck is that guy because as transition because that's our next

I was going to say is that guy award I literally wrote George Rup in all cap because like what the fuck like 30 27 fight of the year and like all I was like I was

such a high because like I had told all my friends to watch this fight and they had delivered and then from that point on I was like if Korean zombie fights I am watching and as the very eloquent Alex Hernandez once said that performance made me flaccid.

And I was like, bro, why did you just get kicked in the skull? Like, you're supposed to be the Korean zombie. And then it's set him back. Like, if he had won that, I feel like it's, but then if he had won that, he would have debuted in the UFC against a much higher level competition.

So in the end, it sort of worked out because the Garcia, the hominic, and it was a good rise, but like, I couldn't believe, because, like, George Roof was, what, 11 and 6 at the time or something like that? was never good. He was... You just...

He was just a guy. He was just a guy. Give a chance to respect. He was a lot of the UFC 10 times. And he... He just was a cage in the cage of bunch. Like, he just was a fine guy. And to be fair, like,

maybe it was because, like, I've retroactively tried to come to terms with the George Rup loss. George Rup was only lost to very good fighters when they fought. Like, the Hioki fight, I know he lost two cups to, Cub Swanson,

Homonick, Rob Fon, Francisco Rivera, like those are really at the time, like good fire. George Sautopoulos when he was on his long stretch

of once he was like the original Maraub, like once he's going to get a title shot. So in the moment, those losses were like, yes, George Drup's lost to Eddie Weiland obviously didn't age well,

but at the time he was only losing to the best of the best. So maybe that's just me trying to come to terms with the Korean zombie for whatever reason, getting head kicked by George Drew. Yeah, and it's actually great you mentioned. It's great you mentioned how weirdly that might

have like affected because if he wins that fight, you're right. If he wins the fight, he probably, they probably don't just go with Leonard Garcia for his UFC debut. They probably find a slightly higher. Maybe they run it back eventually, but I don't think they just run it back with Lenna Garcia. I agree. I agree. And then we never get the first twister in UFC history, right? Who knows? I don't know. They might still run it back because Leonard Garcia had, who was still the dude on the cover of SI with Huerta and the guy getting...

That's true. Had the win. Like, there was the immediate call for that to be run back because it was such a good fight and a robbery. They may well have,

have done that, but it could not be. It is noticed... Is that also... Is that also... Is that also... Is that guy? No, it's not.

Okay. I think we have the same. Go ahead. Sorry. Rube was my honorable mention for the not impressed because it's very weird to look at the Garcia,

Garcia-Homonic Port. streak, which is as good of a run of four fights as has ever been. And then there's the George Rube just dropped in there in the middle to ruin it all. Again, it's coming up the Garcia fight. So it's like, oh, he can't be finished. The whole hype coming into a second. Exactly. You got to see this guy.

This guy can't be finished. You've got to see this. It's crazy. And then, oh. But that's how you kill zombies with headshots. That's it. It lives off to this day. A.K.

My, who the fuck is that guy? is a guy that I genuinely did not know this fight happened until I was doing the research to this. And it's not an MMA fight. Are we on the same page? Oh, we're not. No, no, no, no. As in I'm with you, nope, I had no idea this existed

until I started doing the research. It's a kickboxing fight against Pajon Suke, super pro Samui. Yeah. Had no idea this happened. I can't imagine that I must have missed it. Like, it never popped up in my life. And then I look back at this. And one, Padinsuk is like fairly accomplished Muay Thai fighter,

a world champion at various points in Lupini and stuff like that. Went to the Olympics. And then he just kickboxes, TKZ. And I still don't know why this happened. I mean, this is before the WEC, it's coming off Singoku. And you go watch it. And it's awesome. Because TKZ sleeps this, dude.

It's one of the most violent finishes you're ever going to see a dude getting knocked unconscious and he loses because it's illegal because about three minutes before he sleeps him the ref is going over the rules and specifically says no backfist and then tk z fires a fucking back fist right into this dude's dope and kills him so i didn't know this happened until like two days ago and it was very obviously the who the fuck is that guy from me but thank god this is on youtube uh glory kickboxing is this is official clip this is not getting taken down glory kickboxing this clip up a year ago. Again, I'm with Jed. I just discovered it within the last 72 hours. And so people can watch it all they want. It is bizarre. It is a sweet-ass knockout.

Again, yes, technically a disqualification, whatever. It is a sweet-ass knockout. This was two months before he would debut in the WEC. So I don't- It's arguably his best single highlight. It's so good. It's so good. I mean, the Twister is still the best highlight, but like that is a very damn good highlight. That's up there with Anderson kicking Yushin Okami as like they lost but like no one who was dope and I the John Jones 12 six elbows like it is an there's a Hall of Fame for you technically lost but you didn't lose those three are first ballots this this glory kickboxing clip for sure makes

this show this glory kickbox and again people if you if you must please pause this is a very short clip pause just Google Korean zombie kickboxing or Chan Sun Jun kickboxing it'll pop up The clip itself does not mention that it was a DQ. It just says, Korean zombie sleeps his opponent in kickboxing fight. And you know what? Whoever posted this, blessed your heart because that's all we should care about.

He did. It doesn't say he won. It says he slept him, which he did. Nailed it. It is a very accurate thing. That was my who the fuck, a.k.a. that's yours.

Honestly, it was way easier because sometimes this could be a tough category. That was like, oh, I didn't even know this happened. And he's fought so many notable people. That's the thing. I was looking at his list. I'm like,

what is he has an extensive kickboxing career. That's what I'm saying. Because after the seven second knockout is pretty much just main events. Yeah. Yeah. He, exactly. He has his, you try and,

for TKZ, you try and find like, oh, maybe some of these guys he fought three FST. No, none of them, basically all of them fought like twice. Shouts to Hunggoyolee,

if I mispronounce that. My apologies. fought the dude twice in the first three fights. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Lost both of them, and then he fought Korean zombie. Badly, too. Yeah, he fought Korean zombie, beat a dude, then fought Korean zombie again and was like, I'm done.

Every other fight I'm going to have to fight this dude who kicks the shit out of me. Reverse on him and stuff, like a bunch of nonsense. So shouts to you, young Yoli. I hope you're doing well wherever you are. Unwrap Holiday Magic at Holt Renfrew, With gifts that say I know you, from festive and cozy fashion to lux beauty and fragrance sets, our special selection has something for every style and price point.

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This is for the best single career highlight. And this is where I put a couple of fights that we've discussed and that I think probably deserve a spot on the Rushmore, but I chose to place them here. My choice for this is the Leonard Garcin. a twister. It's the first twister in UFC history. Maybe it's not the first in like MMA history if you're taking the full, uh, every regional promotion ever, but it might even still be. This is certainly the first mainstream twister. Like, like you said, Jose,

I didn't know that you could do this. It looked incredibly painful. The thing that I forgot about it too in rewatching it is how like of a F it move it was from him. Because the rounds taking down he's on the back and he instead of like i'm going to keep trying to fish for an r and see he's like what if i just go to the leg and then set this up because i got 10 seconds left and maybe i'll get it and he does so uh this is the best highlight and a k for your uh edification i also put an honorable mention for more common it because you know fastest chaos in history at the time so so that was me hosey where are you out on randleplex uh i had two The flying knee to dars against Dustin Porre, I think, is my, this is just a selfish thing, but like, that's my favorite highlight because it's just so fluid.

Like, I love flying knees against the fence that anyone throws because seeing a human being like bounce off the cage after eating a flying knee is just like some tech and shit. And then falling right into a dars choke and zombie choking out Porre with his own choke is just such a beautiful one to. and then my other one is in a loss and it was the image of him shoving his shoulder back into place against Josealdo because I didn't I remember when that fight happened

and I was a senior I had just graduated college and I didn't have cable so I was like we have to go watch this at like the local bar or whatever so we went and I convinced the guy to order it I didn't they were not going to show Korean zombie Josea Alto at this bar and I was like please buy it.

Like, I'll pay for it. Just put it on the TV. And he goes, no, we'll put it on. So he put it on, and I was like, oh, man, like, I love Joseoaldo so much.

But Koreans Army is my favorite fighter ever. But Joseo is probably going to win. I just hope it's a good fight. And it wasn't exceptionally close. Like, Josialdo, because Josiello was supposed to fight Anthony Pettis. So Zombie had took this on like short notice, had to go to Rio,

made way. And I was like, I wish Zombie didn't have to take this on these circumstances. And then his shoulder visibly is out. Like, it's like bone is like protruding, not out of the skin, but you can see it's not in place. And he just doesn't even wince, just kind of and shoves it back in a place. And then Jose Alzo proceeds to just spam head kicks at that shoulder until zombie goes down.

So the image of zombie shoving his shoulder back in the place is etched into my brain. That's a great one. as someone who is dislocated his shoulder hundreds of times let me tell you that's some grown man shit to put it back in and go back to fighting because it hurts like a mother and uh then particularly just be like all right i'm going to keep trying to win this fist fight is like that's when i knew that i didn't want to be a fighter right there okay what about you it's the pourier finish for me it's it was that fight in that moment that had me thinking this guy this guy could be the world champion.

And I said this knowing that Josie Aldo was at the time maybe the most dominant guy in the sport. I was like, I need to see that fight happen. And it did happen next, but again, not under the circumstances that we were quite prepared for. It was also, I've meant to mention, I'm glad we can talk about this fight more. This is on UFC on Fuel TV.

Yeah. And Fairfax, Virginia, which is a place they've been to several times, not just Virginia by Fairfax. I was just looking at up three times. They've been to Fairfax. facts now the last couple times that went to Norfolk instead but it this was still like I said during that time when it felt like a little bit magical I know we used to wear in the show a lot

a little bit magical to catch free UFC fights on TV like it was still it still felt like cool to see it now of course we live in the you know ESPN in ESPN plus era it seems almost uncool to watch the UFC every week but back then if you're watching UFC on fuel cards and you caught gems like this um God, you really felt like you were part of something special. And the way it was finished was just so... He broke him. And the win has aged so well.

No, it's not... Listen, this wasn't probably not prime Zawai. Probably not prime, Porey. You know, you can run it back a bunch of times. I'm sure Porey wins some of those fights. But it's aged so incredibly well. There's no controversy. This is a definitive finish.

Zavi was the better man that day. And I'm sure they both became better fighters, you know, going forward because of how this fight went. Porre certainly did. But again, if we're just talking about this, this one frozen moment, man, it was so incredible to watch. And the ultimate exclamation point on like one of the best fights I've ever seen. I have a question for you all about this fight. And this seems as good a time as I need to raise it.

This was not our 2012 submission of the year. I say ours, I'm referring to my friend.com, which is a great website that none of us worked at in the year 2012. And they chose. Don't tell me. Would you like to guess? I'm trying to even think of I doubt you're going to guess it I did not think of either of

it was number three on our list and my question will be to y'all are they is it a male or number one? Yeah a yes yes is it a male or female fight the number one is a women's fight It was it Rhonda

It was Yeah, it's Rhonda Tate in strike force And I am not confident that that's, if you're doing a historical thing. That's more of a historic moment in time. My issue with that is that I, and maybe, maybe I'm being a little blind here for, frankly, for the zombie one, right? Is that, I mean, it's meaningful and that Ronda, you know, gets to be, takes the title, right?

And so that is meaningful. But at the time, that doesn't feel like that's as meaningful. She just won the Strike Force belt, which I guess is meaningful. That feels like that submission aged as a historically significant submission much more than it probably merited at the time, whereas I think zombies is much doper. Would you care to take a crack at what also beat it,

according to MMIFindon? I would imagine it's an atheist. Jim Miller? That is correct. Yeah, because that would I would put that above Ronda in terms of like high level martial arts because I think that was USC on Fox 3? No idea. I think that was USC on Fox 3 and it was in New Jersey. And it was the only time like if you watch that post-fight interview

I can't even, I remember looking for this like a year ago. Like Nate is like, yo Jim Miller is awesome. Like it was weird seeing Nate be so complimentary and he tapped him with a crazy Gie And then the next fight was against Benson on like UFC on Fox fire or something like that. I'm willing to accept that the Jim Miller, Nate, at the moment probably could have been better. Like I'm fine with that. The Rhonda Tate won doesn't feel appropriate to me at the time, though in retrospect, but AK, am I crazy?

Ronda mania, I mean, at that time, it's hard to beat it. I can understand why it went the way it did. And it, we did a damn already on Rhonda, if I'm not mistaken. First woman inducted into the damn Hall of Fame. That's right. We did. We did. And go, you know, now I know we're talking about zombie today.

But yes, just think about like everything that Rhonda did at the time felt so enormous. So I cannot blame the whoever was on the esteemed in my fighting staff at the time for putting Ronda number one. But I would have had the zombie. I would have had that at probably at least number two. But I'm okay. I'm okay with why they made that decision. I get it. I get it. I get it. I'm not gonna be about it. Well, MMA fighting didn't exist until September 16th, 2018, when Jose Youngs joins the MMA fighting. So we'll go with that. Okay. Okay. Well, according to this, uh, shouts to you, Luke Thomas, who kind of wrote his answer of why it was number one. I was like, yeah, this is pretty historically significant by Daraisi's new thing. That was the, that was the fuse that started the wrong. to rocket that yeah fight plus by the end of the year when you're doing this I think ronda had uh beaten sarah Kaufman Kaufman was coffin the second one yeah Liz was the was was UFC debut 157 yeah yep was one after so um yeah this was at the end of the year

Sarah Kaufman the UFC was already talking had already functionally established that they're bringing her over is the get it the UFC on fox 5 which was an 80 as his next fight they debuted Ronda debuted with the belt at the press conference. Yeah. So I get it. Not as historically significant. Plus, one fight of the year. Do you really, is it, it's too much to give one man two of the award in the same year?

Bye. Next category. Right leg hospital. Left leg cemetery award. This is for the best quote by or about the fighter. A.K., let's start with you. What do you have for this? I'm probably missing something obvious, but I just wanted to go to,

zombie had kind of in the later stages of his career had kind of an underrated like online presence like i think he was doing his own was he was doing a youtube he was he was one of the he started first his youtube channel has a million subscribers yeah this man is incredibly popular with his online presence and he was pretty candid like he's saying a lot of funny stuff talking about i remember there's one good video talking about like running down just all of his challengers like or sorry potential fights for him and i had to go back there's a little feature we done at m a funny.com about him talking about the weight cutting. I thought this was funny.

This was after the Kormeat thing happened and him sort of just straight up, just going like, hey, this is how people do it. This is how he had a friend with him to demonstrate it. And it got a pretty big reaction at the time, especially from other fighters and right the body. You can see like this kind of prophetic. Jalen Turner was one of them. He said, I never knew there was so many ways to cheat the scale.

Could it help me out the one time I missed weight? This was one time back then. obviously he missed weight recently. Cody Stamondon's in there. Lauren Murphy said, that's crazy. I didn't know most of those, especially about girls pinching the fabric to make me.

I'll be watching like a hawk now. So yeah, so zombie, again, kind of, I don't, he's the kind of guy, I wish, I could we did some, some stories off his quotes, but I wish, you know,

this was the kind of stuff, this was the kind of part of his persona that was highlighted more. Because as much we talk about the mystique and him being, you know, like a foreign fighter, and I don't speak English,

so that keeps you, kind of like, you know, we default to someone being like stoic. It's like, he's not really stoic. He's actually a pretty smiley, like happy guy and actually was very content to show up his personality, especially when he was, you know, making videos in his native language. So I don't have one big quote, but I just want to talk about him being a seemingly lovely dude. Jose, what about you? I got a quote because I was there and obviously at the moment, and you guys will 100%

remember this because it was the press conference before he fought Volcanowski and it was just lost. in the literal noise because that was homzah gilbert burns you know al germain and pewter yon were kind of going at it and it felt like this like i remember the question was that like the answer was presented i don't remember the question but his answer i was like this would have been a much it would have had more punch if this is a media day because i don't think anyone was talking about and the exact quote was i ever ran down on my phone a lot of a lot of people think Asian men not being able to become champions, I mean, Asian men are weak. But that is not the case. It's because

Asian men are not given as much opportunity as perhaps other races. And if I become champion, then more Asian fighters will be given the opportunity to fight in the UFC and potentially become champion. I was like, damn, like, this man is not only fighting. Like, he sees how big of a deal it would be if he became champion. Like, obviously fighters selfishly want to become champion, but he's like, I want to erase a stigma of like how the outside world views Asian men. And I was like, this is such a great quote in such a hostile environment because it's like the day before they weigh in, Hamzan and Gilbert are screaming at each other. Pyriyan and Aljerman are screaming at each other.

And then Volcanowski and zombie are just polite guys. Volcanowski is like, zombie's awesome. And zombies is like, you know, Asian people don't. like Asian men and I'm going to prove you wrong. So I'm obviously not Asian, but as someone of not a white man, it does feel, it was a cool moment where this guy just kind of recognized the enormity of what it would mean if he won, the title. See, and this is why I love.

I know. Because that's not a perspective I was ever, as a white man. Yeah. I would have brought that perspective. I wish I thought of that. I don't know why it didn't because that did strike me at the time. Yeah, of course, something's very aware of like how Asians are represented in the media, in athletics, or not represented sometimes, as it were. Yeah, that was a huge moment.

So that was a very cool, very candid, very cool thing for a zombie to bring up. And it was felt. It was felt and appreciated by this man, I will say that much. So my choice is another moment that I'll get to. I do want to throw a quick shout out to Max after this fight with some of his best work ever. from a quote of he never ever wanted to die on his shield he always wanted to die on his sword and that's people why people love the korean zombie that's why i love him that's some like good writing like damn dude didn't know you had that max i love that quote about him uh but the quote

i chose is from zombie and it is in the last three days because look the robbie lawler gets a lot of fanfare for his exit and i think it's the best retirement in sport but zombie afterwards on an Instagram post that we wrote about. It's some of the most poignant shit like you're just ever going to hear a fighter say. I haven't achieved everything, but I'm pretty enough and I'm going to stop wanting more from my hair.

I feel like I got a little more love than I did. Thank you all. I will no longer live a life where I'm evaluated and compared. I am lonely, regretful and scary. I don't know what to do, but whatever I do, I'll do my best and whatever I do with all my heart. Like that

is, sad. and beautiful and touching and affecting and like what a what a fucking g man like yeah to to go out in that way and a day later be like hey man i i wasn't the best but i i tried my ass off and i had a great time and i'm i'm not sure what comes next i'm a little afraid like that is vulnerability in the dopest way so that was my choice next category the fatal sweater of absolute victory This is for the piece of memorabilia. One of the, I have the most answers I've ever had for this category. I think the obvious answer, one of you is wearing a piece of memorabilia.

You can't see this at home. Jose Young's is rocking Korean zombie shirt. And I think the original Korean zombie shirt, which you can buy, is probably the appropriate answer. But I have three more things that I added on after deep dives that I want to talk about. because I don't know if you guys knew about these things, but I want this information to be more broadly disseminated. First, zombie was apparently on a Korean TV show called Street Fighter. I don't know what that show is.

I cannot find, I spent so much time trying to video or think. The best I can tell is he fights some people on it, but I don't know and I need it. If you are listening to this and you have an old VHS, fucking DM me, bro, because I need to know what that's about. The second thing, I just thought it was really cool digging on his IG. Somebody, I don't, I think this is a fan thing, sent him a Matrioshka doll. That's, it's him.

And he's like a Russian nesting doll. And he's the big one. And then it's like his family is the next one. And then there's a picture of soul in the next one. And then the next one is the zombie cartoon image like there. And then the last one is like the Korean flag. It was just fucking sick. I was like,

I don't know. Hold on. One of a kind item. I have, he says thanks. I love it and it's a gift. And it looks like it's one of a kind. I'll send it to y'all so y'all can see this thing.

But I was just diving on his Instagram was like, this thing is awesome. So like if I'm him, I would think that that's one of the coolest things ever. And then the last, the last thing I also found on his Instagram, Did y'all know that Korean zombie is is hawking food items? There is a zombie energy drink.

Oh, oh, wait. You don't say. Jose, I'm holding up the zombie. Come on. You don't say. We should explain. You tried it? Guys, we, this is.

No, because I don't want to open it. Well, I didn't know if you had gotten multiple of them or not. I did get multiple. They came in a few different. flavors, but I kept the blue one and gave him to other zombie fans that I know who all have them. It's like friendship bracelets. We should tell people, Jose was holding up a can of

a can of said beverage. It's a blue. Holding up a can of the Korean zombie energy drink. Yeah, it's a beautiful blue energy drink. He also has food, though, that he is apparently sold in Korean convenience stores. There are rice balls and a chicken burger.

Both of those items appear to involve mac and cheese so from this i assume that korean zombie loves mac and cheese which is just an interesting piece of trivia um i desperately need to go to kria and and try these items because when i found this out i was like i don't i don't know what i'm missing in my life this feels like galette town so that's my whole list of items i want from zombies illustrious career uh okay what about you i got nothing man i just eat one of those t-shirts because i don't own any MMA t-shirts if I'm not mistaken. I have a couple of Sarah Longo Jiu-Jitsu shirts that I think my cousin picked up for me once when he was

traveling through New Jersey so I love those but those technically I wouldn't call those M-A shirts like I don't have a fighter shirt and frankly I'm not looking to make that a big collection there's not a lot of fighters who shirts I would want to wear but zombie is far in a way number one I would very happily wear either the one that Jose is wearing the black one right now, or of course the original. The original, the original ones, the, the, the is the original.

This one came first. You're wearing the original. This one came first. So Jose is wearing the original, yeah. What I was gonna say for the one I want is, so I'm wearing the original one. And then the next one became his logo. That's the one that Dan White made famous.

Right. Yes. Dana White made famous by wearing it at a UFC, the Wayans, at the face off. It wasn't even a zombie fight. Like he just wore the Korean zombie shirt. It's the one that's on the cover. It's the one that's on the front of this energy drink,

which someone gave me in Jacksonville, they gave me like a six-pack. What I want is I want one of the original zombie shirts in my size because when they went on sale originally, UFC wasn't selling them, zombie was selling them. And they sold out super fast. and I bought one in double XL

because that was the only size available because I just wanted an original zombie shirt now I went to the gym a lot still but I want an original Korean zombie shirt from the original line in my size because you can now get that shirt but it's not it's sold through like third parties and all that kind of stuff like I want an original

zombie shirt that I can actually wear in public because they also have them in black and they have them in blue so those are that's my name. answer because I'm not going to lie, I got most of the zombie memorabilia that I want. And I own three fighter shirts. Two of them are the Korean zombie. And the other one was the original Don't Be Scared homie Nick Diaz shirt from right after he fought BJ Penn.

I was going to say, I don't own any fighter shirts and zombies is the only one I think I would want. I could also accept the don't be scared homie. That's a good one. But yeah, zombie, it's the best. It's the original one's the best shirt in the history of the sport. And the one that Dana wore, like, that logo is sick. And it's a great logo to be plastering on food and beverages and many other things. So just another all-out win for zombie.

Next award, the Habib Tony Award for the fight that never happened that you wanted to see. I have a million answers for this. I have three. Let me go first here, Jed, because I actually don't have that many. Okay. You should definitely go first. This is kind of what I love about zombies career is I feel like we got pretty much everything we wanted.

It's also a good reason why we did it after, like you said, after the Holloway fight, because that's one of the fights that would have been out there. If he never fought Holloway, you know, it would have been cool if it happened three or four years ago, sure, but that we got it. It's such a privilege. We got to see these two legends share the cage. So that was like up there on the list. I have some names.

Like I think when Edson Barbosa dropped down to 1.45, I was immediately like, I need to see these. I need to see Barbosa and zombie fight now. And now I would say something like Nate Landwer were, you know, Nate Landware were to him and zombie would be insane as well. There's just so many great featherweights. So I'm sure you guys have some awesome names. But for me, I'm not, I am satisfied. I am so satisfied with what I saw in zombies career. He got to fight so many legends again, Hallaway,

Frankie Edgar, Volcanovsky, Aldo, you know, who could ask for more, Aporei, who could ask for more in their career? So I will not be selfish. I will not be spoiled gentlemen. I already feel like I've been spoiled by this guy's career, but I am curious, which you guys came up with. This is fascinating because of the names you mentioned, I have five names and I narrowed that list down because I didn't want to have too many of them. I didn't even sort of have those. I do have Max Holloway on this list, but Max Holloway at like 2014. Like that fight would have been.

Oh, you're talking of time machine. Yeah, time machine if we get done that. But I did not have any of those other ones. Jose, you said you had three. Yeah. I have to imagine we're going to have at least one overlap. So fire your three at me. Two of them were booked and didn't happen.

And one of them I just wanted back in the day. So the two that were booked into happen were zombie Ricardo Llamas, I think was booked two or three. I do have that one. It was booked twice. And then for whatever, I think, I think Lomas pulled out of both. I can't remember. I believe that's correct, but I'm not 100%. And then the Cub Swanson fight was supposed to happen too.

I think that was going to be in the double. I think he, I think Leonard Garcia replaced Cub Swanson in Zombies' WEC debut. So I Is that correct? That might be right I was just looking it up So Llamas pulled out of one for the thing The other

The UFC pulled Zombie out because To fight Aldo? Okay So Lamas because I wanted like both fights When they were booked I was like Oh that fight rules And we just never got it

And then I believe the Cubs Swanson fight was going to be in WEC And Cub Swanson and WC was He's always been an exciting fighter But that was he was kind of the man back then And then I remember there was this point in time when I just, I wanted Max Holloway, Charles Olivera, and Korean zombie to just all fight each other in like 2015 era. And like we got the Olivera Max Holloway fight, which wasn't really a fight. It just happens.

And I remember that fight card sucked. And it was like peak FS1 era where it was like a nine hour fight card. And every fight was like okay. But I remember being, it was in like, society. Saskatchewan or something like that. And the whole time I was like, this fight sucks, but we're going to get Charles Oliver Max Holloway.

And then that happened. So, but like that triangle of like Holloway-Olivaer zombie in like 2014, 2015 at Featherweight, I just wanted them all fight each other. So those are the three that I, those are three. Obviously I would watch Conn McGregor fight zombie, but like that was realistically never going to happen.

But I do remember back in the day when Connor broke on to the scene, whenever he wasn't doing interviews and he wasn't on TMZ like every moments at every day every interview that had come out felt like appointment viewing for Connor and he did one with the UFC where he went down the list of the top 10 at featherweight and he just like roasted everyone except zombie he was like how do you not like Korean zombie and then moved on so I was like I'm cool to see in like 2013 but it was never going to happen so I'll talk about mcgregor in a minute charles olivera is that was that's number two on my list i have a list of five i was number two uh that fight can you just imagine that yeah awesome unbelievable i also noted the lamas

fight just because it was twice booked and lamas was a fun fighter i missed cub didn't even think a cub think cub would have been a great choice uh here's the the other two for me because i had holloway a younger holloway would have been a better fight hatsu hioki just from the the grappling of that uh I don't think enough people know about Hioki. No way. I have to do a damn on him at some point in time. There was a moment where this dude was the second best featherway in the world behind Josealdo. And he turned us to shut down.

Yeah. A mistake in hindsight, but he wouldn't want anyway. But I mean, this dude was magic on the floor. And we've already talked some about what we saw zombie do. That fight always had a special place in my heart and never happened. But the number one, and I'm going to go into this because this flows pretty much directly into the T.J. Grant Alternate Universal Award for the sliding doors moment. The number one for me is Connemar Greger because of the sliding doors aspect. And I didn't think this at the time because I was not ever a fight during that point of fandom where I was like, I need to see this.

But looking back on it, if I could pick one fight, it would go in with the what if, if, moment of what if zombie didn't have to do military service? And that's, I think that's, that's the obvious answer. I assume that that would be the answer for both of you with the T.J. Grant Award, because that is the most talked about. And they're mitigating factors here, right? Like, zombie took his service at a time when he's coming off a loss of the title shot, basically knowing that, okay, I got to do this.

Now's a good time because I'm not in the title picture right now. I just lost. And I need to recover from some injuries. And so hoping that that would work out for him. that way. So there's that part of it. But if this just isn't an aspect to it, we're talking about the exact moment in time where, as you mentioned, Jose Connor respects him. He is one of the most beloved fighters still in MMA at that moment. And Connor ends up fighting Dustin Porre, who frankly at that time was kind of a poor man zombie. Like, zombie had already beaten him. And

that's the, that's the elevation moment for Connor. We're going to have him fight Dustin. It's going to be a big moment. Think if he doesn't do this, if he doesn't have to do the military service, that I think is a fight that does happen in 2012, 2013. That is the fight. And then that's such an interesting sliding doors moment for me for the whole of the sport, frankly, because can Connor put zombie away? We're talking like, whatever your thoughts on Connor, he's one of the 10 most exciting fighters ever. So you're putting two top 10 most exciting fighters ever against each other. sign me up that fight's going to be a freaking banger and then if if zombie beats him is mima changed entirely like is do we know each other does this sport be what it is like i after like i said at the

time uh charles oliver and hioki were the ones that i was the most adamantly i want these fights to happen in retrospect and after diving into this the branches from the possibility tree that spring from from zombie not doing service and getting the Connor fight are too fascinating and so that's why that's my number one for there for y'all in the alternate universe award what is the tj grant is it the military service yeah i have like a list but like that's very clearly number one because the military is what two years serves but we we lost him for four like he was gone for more than two years so if we didn't lose those i'm grouping the military service into like if we didn't lose those four years of zombie like yeah he came in and

kicked the dorn against dennis bermudez but um if he was doing his thing during at i think we can all agree like the ronda and conner debut kind of took i think john jones put it best where they fast forward to the sport 10 years that's what connor like he went in terms of connor if zombie was doing zombie things during the genesis of like arguably the greatest year in mma history in terms of revenue and popularity, I'd be curious if he would be more of a bigger star. And then the only other ones they have is if his shoulder didn't come out against Jose Aldo and if he got a full camp against Josealdo and it wasn't in Rio. Like if they fought in Vegas on, they both had full camps, how would that fight go?

It's the full camp for me. It wasn't like a huge, what was it? He got six, he ended up getting five weeks, six week camp. Yeah, but he also admitted the fight being in Rio was difficult. Yeah, and it still felt like the timing, we wanted him to get a title shot on his own merits, not as a replacement. Like I think we were all thrilled to see him get a title shot, but it did feel like, okay, he beats Porre, probably beats one more guy, and then he's primed, he's peaking. Let's see this version. I don't think it makes that much of a difference.

Again, we are talking about Jose Aldo. I think Aldo, again, assuming the shoulder doesn't pop out, I think Aldo wins a pretty comfortable decision against zombie, but still, I remember not being as as hype for this fight as I should. should have been, which is weird, because you just look at it, like, if people don't remember the time, and they just look at it, you're like, wow, like, zombie fought Aldo that must have been amazing and, like, the hype around, it must have been crazy. Like, it really wasn't. It was somewhat muted. People wanted to see Aldo fight Pettis as well, so that it did feel like this constellation price. It didn't feel like zombies fight. It just didn't feel like zombies fight. So that's always going to be a little sour for me. I wish that the timing had just been a little bit better,

and we could have enjoyed the moment a little more. Glad he got the fight. Glad we got to see it, but it could have been it could have been so much bigger i feel yeah i think that's why i didn't even consider this is i judge aldo's one of my three favorite fighters of all time and i'm pretty confident he was winning that fight regardless of that was never the moment for me next category wrapping up here just a couple of left the dan hibom award for if you could take one piece of their game uh what you know added to yours make it create a fight or what have you what's what's the one thing, what's the one weapon that they have? For the third,

consecutive damn in a row, I'm choosing the exact same thing because Robbie Lawler, Yawani and Jacek, and Mr. Chancen, John, the Korean Zombie, all have this in common. AK, I'm so glad we have you here on the pod because they got that dog in them.

And I got to tell you, if I can have one piece of their game, I want the heart, the tenacity, the ability to overcome that Korean zombie. showcase that's that's what i need from him yeah it wasn't just a gimmick uh he lived up to the it's so crazy because it has now become the trademark of several south korean fighters now yeah and i don't know if it i don't know what it is i don't know and i'm sure uh i'm only

remembering examples because again you know uh jed and i used to do uh miss fist together i still do it but i mean in your in your name i'm sorry to bring it up i know it's such a sore spot We do get a lot of highlights from Korea. Drop by shooting, right? I'm so sorry. We do get a lot of highlights from Korea, and a lot of them involved, I don't know how many times I've written this sentence, like this Korean fighter walks through these blows, smokes the other guy.

It just happens a lot. So, I mean, we talk about this. What trait would you take? It feels like the whole culture really did take this trait. And I'm sure he wasn't the first one to be a hard-chinned fighter from South Korea. But you cannot see a South Korean fighter anymore. showing off that kind of like swagger and durability without saying oh that's like that's like chansang jump that's like the korean zombies so it is it is his defining trait certainly i'm gonna

i'm gonna essentially say the same thing but not as silly as has the dog in them uh it's his ability to fight while hurt because i think like having the like you know perseverance and have the dog in them and, you know, walk this and that. But like, when you have a broken nose and a concussion in the middle of a high-level martial arts fight and there's got a guy still trying to put you away, more times than not when you're in that scenario, you're going to lose. But zombie's ability to, A, like, those things very clearly and visibly hurt him, but the ability to maintain his game plan and skill set and not all of a sudden just succumb to damage.

Like his ability to fight in, he doesn't fight overly intelligent, but his ability to continue fighting while in pain is an admirable trait that, like Robbie Lawler, Gatchie, Yawanna, like, Whaley, I think is obviously, I know she got head kicked by Rose, but like the ability, everyone gets that one. The ability to continue fighting a top five fighter

where the shattered nose is an admirable trait. Yeah, this was a very easy one. I did want to still an honorable mention because we haven't really talked about it, and I thought about maybe putting this in memorabilia because you could find a way to make this happen. But best walkout in MMA? It's in the conversation. I don't know if he has it, but. Ronda's up there.

Ronda's is very up there, but the idea. Yeah. It feels weird to me, and AK, you touched on this a little bit, like this being a gimmick. The Korean zombie thing is a gimmick. because it is and he I feel like nine out of ten fighters if you're like no like don't call me chansung

call me Korean zombie I'd be like all right you fucking loser that's weird like if Sean Strickland just came out was like I'm the American zombie now I'd be like no you weirdo but it worked for him and then the full buyin of rocking the cranberry's track yeah and like

that just and maybe I'm it might be a little Is this, be biased because the walkout in Singapore was so monumental, but take that. Is this the best gimmick in MMA? Yes. Because no one calls in Chan Sung-sung.

Like posters literally say Koreans on me. I do. I do, but I'm a cop. I'm a cop. So I do call him chance. I don't know why. We just got off a call where you were insisting we call.

We use Ian Machado Gary the whole time. Chatsung specifically says, call me Korean zombie. You should be adhered to his wishes. Let me see the paperwork that says that's his legal name. And I will. Even to that, like, you mentioned Sean Strickland being like, oh, like, if he joked and called himself the American zombie, like, if there is ever a fighter that is, like, walking through damage, it immediately becomes, like, Canadian zombie. Yeah. Like, like, I'll start, like, he has become a noun.

He's become a, like, he's a verb. His gimmick, he's just a gimmick that he may, is like, I'm going to do this. And he went full into it. And so I think there's all of that, I would also take that from him. Just his ability to manifest this gimmick into. I add another fight to my wish I got to see it. And I don't know we passed it. Like, like 10 years ago, Jake, Clay Collard, because I remember he,

He fought, I can't even, he might have fought Max Holloway. And he was so, his fight side was so stupid, but so fun that I was like, I just want to watch Korean zombie fight this guy. And then it just never happened. I mean, I would have never thought of that. But yeah, Clay Collard's always in fun fights. So I want to fight for the year this year. The white zombie.

The white zombie. The pale zombie. Dude, I mean, think about what we could have done. So next category, the Sean Ferris Award for actor who should play. them in a movie famously named after Sean Ferris. The action plays Jake Tyler in the cinematic masterpiece that is never backed down. This was a difficult category because as an extremely white man, I didn't want to just like go generic Korean actor at risk of like, all Koreans look alike and the various problems

that that can be. I have one answer. I think it's the safest answer of all. possible because terrific actor. You got to do the time machine. I need a young Lieb Younghoun. He would have been perfect. He would have been perfect.

He's like 50 now. He's a great actor. His face, he's got the sort of broader nose that kind of fits with zombie. Like the look is there. Would have been perfect. And I was like, I don't want to dig through a list of 20 young Korean actors because I feel like that's dangerous category for a man of my particular caucusity. Jed, listen, I'm Asian and I didn't want to touch this in that, from that angle.

Are you, this is how? Are you, are you, are you, are you PFL's 80% Asian? More than 80% significantly more. And I still was like, I don't like exactly the thing thought you had. I'm just, I don't know enough about the Korean film scene to like do anything more than just like. And there's a lot of it. There's like a lot of it's huge. It's huge.

And I mean, Korean movies kick ass. I mean, look at the ones that they're so. They're all fun as shit. So I cheated, as I want to do in these situations. I cheated. I will not pick an actor. I will pick a director and not one that people are thinking of. Not one of the big names, not, not to bomb.

I'm not going to bomb. I'm not going to. As soon as you said picking director, I assume that's what you're going. There's many notable, like there's two dozen great green directors you could pick. But I will go, I'm going homegrown. I'm shout out my fellow Canadian and Markham District High School alum. We went to high school together. I think she was one year younger than myself.

Celine Song, who just directed the critically acclaimed past lives. Phenomenal movie. Great movie. I'm super jealous of her abilities, but I'm willing to admit that she probably is a better filmmaker than I could ever hope to be. Even if I had tried. She wrote this movie, directed it. She's one of the producers on it.

It's really, really good stuff. I think she would do an awesome job. Maybe I could help work on the screenplay for this movie. Celine, if you're out there, I'm sorry I wasn't cooler in high school. I swear, I'm a much cooler, likable person now. So if you're out there, let's talk about this way, because I think she has the touch for her to do a compelling Korean zombie movie. So shout us to Celine's song.

She can handle her and her team can handle the casting. Of other people we went to high school with. Her and her team can handle the, this is the, it's her and it's Valvina. All right, those are the two most famous Markup District High School alums. I'm much more proud of Celine's song than I am of Valvinus. Who is Valvinus? He's a wonderful, talented attitude-era professional wrestler. Definitely go Google Valvinus T-shirt.

Definitely do that. Okay. So I'm on my word computer. I'm going to not do that. Yeah, don't do that. Celine and her team can handle the casting and all the fancy stuff. I would just like to take part in the creative side of it. But I think she'd do an awesome job.

Fantastic. Jose. I would say, I would present you a question that we need a individual who has, you know, has acting experience is Korean and has MMA experience and might be the 2002 Blue Dragon Series Award nominee for Best New Male Entertainer. Man's just going to play himself. Is his name Chan Sung Jung? Is this the man? Is this Chan Sung Jung? Yes. He's an actor. He just play himself. He's in, like, TV shows. Does he act in them?

Because I've never, like, the... He's been acting like a nice guy his whole career when in reality, he's just a bloodthirsty MMA savage. So, that's your answer. What was this award you mentioned? It was the same series.

It was nominated for Best New Metal Entertainer for Fighter Club. Wow. It's a... It's just the ultimate fighter club. Fire Club is like a, yeah, Fire Club is like a free of basically. Yeah. And then it's the Blue Dragon Award.

I looked into this as like for streaming. My actual. If that's a cop out, because we don't want the Korean zombie playing himself. I wrote down Weehaw June, who's the young actor in Squid Games. He's the very handsome male lead. He's also in one of my favorite found footage films. Gong Jin Haunted Asylum, which I think is the benchmark for I understand that Blair Witch Project is the original. It's not the best.

It is Gongin Jinhontad Asylum is the best found footage film I've ever seen. He's the main character of that too. Very handsome boy, June. We had June is very handsome and was where I initially went when I was looking at this. And I think if they were to make a zombie movie in the next year or two, he is probably the person who would actually get the call he's the most famous because even you in korean or is he Korean American he's I have no idea I would assume Korean American so but like I think we Housun is probably the most famous Korean actor in America right now probably just because of Squid Games yeah Stephen

you was born in Seoul okay so then the answer is Stephen you is the most famous Korean actor in America very clearly but like we in terms of like people that I I don't associate Stephen Yun with like Korean's like cinematography. Because he's been in so many other things that like American audiences know. Wea Ajoon is probably more of the people that do most of their work in career. He's probably the most famous solely because Squid Game was such a global phenomenon when it came out. And I bet none of them know his real name. They just say, oh, the Squid games got squid game.

That's what I would have done. Did you know Stephen Yunn spent time growing up in Saskatchewan? I just looked this up and was like, wow. looking at it right now. I'm looking at his Wikipedia right now. He really shoutouts to Regina. The second to last category, the Cole Conrad

Career Change Award. What would Koreans Zahn be doing if you weren't a fistfighter? This was very difficult for me. He graduated with a degree from Youngbook Science University. Hold on. Before we

I just want to add, because I wrote it down and forgot to bring it up. Wehu June is in a movie called Shark the beginning where he played an MMA champion. Oh, I thought you were going to say he played a shark. I think he got. Anyway, I actually thought that's strange.

That is ring. I was like, he played a shark. Continue what you were saying. That's a fantastic poll. So for the Cole Conrad, I have no idea. He graduated with a degree in the sciences, but his quote by it is that his major was mixed martial arts because he was already fighting at the time.

So instead, I copped out on this category and was just like, I don't know, feels like he'd be fighting. But this is where I wanted to bring up. The dude has been doing phenomenal as a content creator. He's got a million subs on YouTube. Like,

every video he does is turning in like a million things. He is so much more popular than I think anyone really recognizes it in the MMA fan base. So that's all I have for this, is I don't know what he'd be doing as a, like, professional because I can't picture him doing anything else. But I think moving forward,

he's just going to keep making YouTube videos and doing Korean Ultimate Fighter and all that sort of stuff. Yeah, and you all have anything here. Just being like a celebrity in his and enjoying his retirement. Because the first thing that came to mind in mind was if they do another season of physical 100,

I need zombie on there, man, because he's still in sick shape. I think he'd do awesome on there. Of course, season one featured Yoshiro Akiyama, or as he is known in Korea, as Sunghum, Chu. So, Sexyama, and he was the star of the show. My bad. I thought he said, as he's known, would just be sexy. He was one of the stars that first season.

I think zombie would have a similar role if they do a second season. I feel like they have to. It's such a fun show. So, yeah, and he'll just be doing more stuff. like that. So, Godspeed, zombie. My answer was probably what he's going to do, because Max Holloway hinted at it on his Instagram post, is that Max Hollowis is looking forward to your first album. So I'm just going to say he's going to be a singer.

Hip-up star, let's go. Because he's also friends with J. Park. He's also, well, he's friends with Jay Park. And J. Park is one of the bigger stars in all of Korea in terms of entry. Even in America, his tour sell out. He tagged Jay Park because so Max Holloway said like can't wait for your next singing album and Korean zombie responded to Max saying like, you know, I was an honor, this and that. And then he goes, all right, let's get working on my first album and then tags Jay Park.

I'm just going to say he's going to come out with an album and I'm all about it. Dude, BTS, watch your back. Zombie coming for you. If his first song out isn't a cover of Zombie, what are we even? doing here. If he comes up, but see, the problem is, like, everyone assumes that, like,

if he puts that song out, it's going to be a, what's the song? What's the song that Shaneh O'Connor sings? Nothing compares to you? Nothing compared to you, yeah. That's not her song, but everyone associates it with Shanae O'Connor.

If he sings zombie, they're going to forget the Cranberry saying it because it's going to be that good. And you can't do that. No, you can modernize it. You do something else with it. At the minimum, at least use zombie in like a hook. Sure. You know, like a sample.

He should do a song by the zombies, guys. He should do time of the season. Okay. That would be. Time of the season. Can his first album just be explicitly zombie related to tear? Yeah. Yeah.

Like he's like like earlier. White zombie. Exactly. He can see so many things. He just covers all of Rob's obvious songs. This would be the best idea I've ever heard. Somebody tag TKZ when this episode goes live so he can know where he needs to be moving forward. Final category before we put a bow on things to look at me now!

Leon Edwards Award for the best moment of Korean zombie's career. A.K., let's start with you. I just keep coming back to Porier. I just keep coming back to the Porriere fight. It's on my Mount Rushmore. It was my, what was the best moment, like best individual moment? And career peak, I never,

there was never a moment more than this where I said this guy is, you know, one of the best fighters in the world. I want to see him fight every, like for the rest of my life. I never want to miss one of these guys' fights. Again, I know he fought for the title twice, but, you know, and again,

And he fought for title right after, even though it was as a replacement and not as the originally scheduled challenger. But yeah, that's the whole, my eyes were opened up to the world and to the possibilities when he won this fight against Porre. So that's it for me, man. It was this. And I don't know. For me, I don't think, even though there were plenty of big fights ahead, I just don't, I just can't think any win was bigger. So, yeah, begins and ends right there. Jose, what about you?

So I kind of I get that answer But like the look at me now obviously Based on the Leon Edwards That was like an emotional moment So I said his knockout over Dennis Bermudez Because like coming off for four years There was a lot of questions People forget that there was a lot of media in attendance

Because that was Super Bowl week in Houston The Super Bowl was in Houston It was the day before Because this is when Fox would have the Super Bowl The UFC would hold events in that same city The day before So a lot of eyes were on it. I think it was the perfect matchup, perfect performance. It just reminded everyone what

he was about and how exciting he really is, didn't miss a beat. And I was nervous for that fight. Because I was like, you know, four years, it's an eternity in MMA, not to be training. Also, let's not forget. Like, he was in, remember he was supposed to fight like Akira Khorasani and like Sweden and got hurt? And then Max Holloway, oddly enough, ended up taking zombies place on that Sweden card in Stockholm. I think that was just a, like, you all must have forgot moment. not the biggest name not the most exciting performance but like four years off reminding everyone that he's still the man that's the answer for me so uh as i've done i have to think we're this is close to 20 i'm not entirely sure how many of these we've done at this point i've realized that this

has become uh what would have been the optimal time for them to retire moment for me um largely maybe a couple of exceptions but like where is their star power at its highest and their ability still good and something like that. And I think that there's a very strong case for both of your choices, Poirier highlighting one of the better runs in the history of the sport. That will, you know, 18-month stretch and the comeback. For me, though, I went Frankie Edgar. So we're bringing it back up, AK, I promised you we would.

Come on. Because this is, if he'd never fought again after this, that would have been a phenomenal exit to the sport. Edgar fight had been teased, had been booked before, fallen through. Frankie is a legendary fighter, and he finally, after like 10 years, gets to headline an event in South Korea, gets to do the thing. And when he does, even though it's a fight, he's predicted, I think, when we were first talking about this, I think Jose, you said, like, I didn't think that he'd do it like that.

And he just mollywaps, Frankie Edgar. I don't know that his career has a higher moment when you factor in how big a star he already was and getting to do that in South Korea in front of all its fans and have that moment over Legend of the Sport. That's a lot of converging high points there. So that is his Leon Edwards moment for me, which brings us to the end of the pot. The last thing put a bow on it, we all get to say our final. final thoughts on Korean zombie and what he meant to us and where we go from here. So in a change of pace, I'm going to let Jose close the book on this one.

So I will lead us off AK and then you can go and then we can have Jose close it. But for me, I think I'm the one who has the least emotional attachment to Korean zombie as I'll do. And he is still a significant and important fighter for me. I've loved watching him fight for 10 years. and I said it at the top, and I'm still kind of grappling with it, but seeing him and Robbie Lawler and Yawanna and a number of these really significant fighters for a period of time, exit and the way they've exited and having to re-recking with what they mean as fighters and what my conceptions of greatness are.

And where TKZ fits into the grand tapestry of MMA, I still don't know. The thing that I do know about him as he walks away from the sport is there are many careers I'd take over him if I could, you know, Jeannie Swap Our Lives. I don't think that there are many fighters. There are maybe a handful of fighters who are more beloved than him. And that feels to me, the older I get more significant than any accomplishments than any records or fight of the years, the totality of the whole. of the fact that you can have affected the lives of so many people in such a substantive way to have at the end of your career an arena full of people in Singapore chant singing zombie as you exit because of what you meant to them and that I won't it's a second time this month

I've cried watching fist fights and I don't that's not usually an emotion you have in this sport And so to me, that said it all, that exit, him taking it all in. And even after the fact being like, I don't feel like I deserve as much love as y'all are giving me, that means a whole hell of a lot. And damn, zombie, you were great. As much as anyone, I know, I know we're bringing this up, you know, in the wake of talking about Yohanna and talk about Robbie Lawler. I don't know if I would say either of them, if I would describe either of their careers

with the word that I'm going to use to describe zombies, it was elegant. It was strangely elegant, given the wars he was in, the insanely violent moments that his fights produced. It's just so elegant and clean. And the Holloway, the way it ended, the Holloway fight really helps to frame it as such

because he does the thing. Listen, he comes up in his native Korea, gets these pretty notable fights in Japan, gets onto the U.S. It has maybe one of the best debuts you could have for an Asian fighter fighting for the first time in North America, except for knocking the win against Leonard Garcia, certainly arguably the most memorable.

And then rises up to the UFC, gets that first title shot. And from there, it's just a top name until the very end of his career, until he fights Holloway. And he's there also during the rise of the promotion. We mentioned some of these names we've mentioned. He's there during the Ronda Rousey area.

He's there during the Connor Gregor era. And he's not the number one guy during this time, but he is such a name that fans love every time. He's an integral part of the companies. He's one of those backbone guys. And also being a star in his own right, very much a self-made star with the way he fights, with the nickname, with the branding, with the gimmickery.

And he got to go out his way. He got to go out with a fight that he wanted and doing it the way he wanted, that round three charging forward, put me out. This is how I want to go. go. And there's very few fighters who have an arc like this, even taking in that blift because he had to do the military service, which is unfortunate. Other than that, it's a pretty clear it arcs up, up, up, up, up, up. It peaks and it peaks for a long time. And then it doesn't even

have a steep drop off. It peaks, and then it stops at the Max Holloway fight, and that's it. And now we can comfortably talk about how much we love this guy's fights, loved his career. And fingers crossed, we don't see him in combat sports again. and we can always look back fondly on this just again very neat and i'll say it again elegant fighting career yes is it my term it is okay um i don't know how to i mean you guys kind of all nailed it on the head um the korean zombie is if you one of the five most exciting fighters in the history of mixed martial arts like i'm not saying dominant i'm not saying must watch i'm saying pound for pound if you take every second of their fight it is just all action all the time even in his losses he is

i think going to be a underappreciated fighter 10 15 years from now because the way the sport is going a lot of these guys are becoming these massive stars based on their you know their personas their characters it's either you know sean o'malley kind of uh this this age demographic of youtube kind of Hevitates towards him with his face tattoos and his hair. And Isra Adasanya is an incredibly exciting fighter that, you know, talks a lot of shit and backs it up. Connor is Connor. Alex Volcanowski is a guy that just fights all the time. And, you know, he can talk some shit to even Max Highway talks a lot of shit.

Justin Gaci. The Korean zombie didn't talk shit at all. He just won fans over with never being in a boring fight whatsoever to the point where he was overly polite and overly nice. And I think Jed said it best when I can't think of a single fighter now, because obviously now Robbie Lawler's retired, that

no one has a bad thing to say about. Like, Justin Gagy's super exciting. There are obviously fighters with issues with Justin Gagey, same as Dustin Porier, same is Israel Adasania. I mean, Jan Bolovic people, there are fighters that will complain about Blahovic. I don't know a single fighter in any

way class that has something negative to say about the Korean zombie. But there's also no fighter out there that says the Korean zombie is my favorite fighter ever. I think he's a guy that now that he's retired, people are going to look back on his career and say, that's the definition of what a high-level martial artist should be. Didn't sell his soul, was just, oh, was a company man, was never in a bad fight, and at a time, Max Holloway was that too. He kind of took that rain where he won like 9, 10 in a row,

he just won fans over by fighting all the time and being an excited. in exciting fights. You know, didn't campaign for, I want to fight this guy so I can hop the ladder and this and that. Korean zombie fought everyone put in front of them, was never in a bad fight,

was even the one guy that he had an issue with in Brian Ortega, if you remember the moment after their fight, Korean zombie went up to him and jokingly slapped him in the face and said, we good now and that was that. Like, even when he has an issue, he knows he lost and he still makes fun about,

He goes, that was a silly rivalry we had. And jokes about the slap. Korean zombie is what, I'll put it this way. The Korean zombie is what if you are a martial arts coach, you want your students to be the Korean zombie. Incredibly exciting, incredibly talented, incredibly skilled, and incredibly respectful. Definition of a high-level martial artist

at the pinnacle of the sport. After the hominic fight, was he ever in a co-main event ever again? I think he was just... No, it's 10 straight... I was literally just looking at that. You read my mind. Ten straight main events to close out his career.

Ten main events to close out his career. That's impressive. That's impressive. He is fight, and he's always in top five fights. Like, he has never fought someone that is... But he is a guy, it doesn't matter who he fights. It is an action-packed all. I can't put in the words what the Korean zombie meant to me

because he's my favorite fighter ever. And if I had a kid that wanted to be an MMA fighter, I would say you should try to be, don't try to be Batman, try to be Superman. Try to be the Korean zombie. Because you might not get the money of Sean O'Malley and Connor McGregor. And I know Casey always brings up the, you know,

legacy don't pay college legacy don't pay college tuition but okay Korean zombie has a beautiful wife a kid beloved by an entire country

beloved by an entire sport there are a lot worse things in the world than to have a beautiful family and the respect of every human being that's what the Korean zombie is all about yeah there are things more important than money and

uh Given his various other things he's got going on, I don't think zombies struggling for money. He's selling burgers. He's about to come for BTS's throne in the music industry. He's golden. He's doing okay. And so Korean zombie, we salute you.

We thank you for the years. And we'll be sad to see you go. But I hope you stay away. Don't come back. From what I hear, I don't think he's going to fight again. But obviously, you guys all watch road to the UFC whenever it's aired. he's he's in a lot of fighters corners like he does the he'll when they cut to you know how in the UFC they'll cut to the fighters like it's like black and white and they'll be like I'm

gonna kill this guy this and that whenever zombies fighters fights they cut to him like they have him build his fighters up and he's very good at it he trains here in Arizona with with Eddie Chaw a lot so I'm sure he'll be around we'll see him in a lot of fighters corners I'm I'm very curious to see how he translates to being an MMA coach now full time. Yeah, that'll be really interesting to see. Hopefully, you know, we'll see him around. He'll keep coming around.

He can run up UFC South Korea. Sure. That's what we need to do with the legends of the game. Just give them little fiefdoms in the countries of their choosing. So that's it. A fantastic episode. Two of them at you this week. And hopefully no more seminal figures will retire.

and we can start chipping into this list of people who are already retired. I don't know. It doesn't matter a lot to me. Stepe and John Jones have some fights coming up. Yeah, but we're not doing John for a while. I literally had this conversation with Shaheen yesterday. And you're never doing Steve. John Jones may be the first two-part episode.

Oh, for sure. Because I don't think you can do John Jones in under four and a half hours. No. So it is just too much. So we'll wait on that. Until then, thank you so much, Jose Youngs. Thank you so much, Alexander K. Lee, for joining me on his journey. Thank you, guys.

We'll be back in a couple of weeks with another edition of Damn, they were good. The Vox Media Podcast Network.