A huge featherweight fight rumored for an upcoming PPV card this fall is the basis for this morning’s MMA odds and ends.
Frankie Edgar vs. Chan Sung Jung, UFC 229 An exciting featherweight bout between former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung is the first addition to UFC 229, which is set to take place Saturday, October 6 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The bout is not official yet but was first reported by Chris Taylor of BJPenn.com, a writer who has broken numerous big fights in the past, so I’m inclined to believe this report is true and we’ll get official word of this exciting matchup soon.
Edgar (23-6-1) is coming off of a decision win over Cub Swanson which helped him forget about the bad memories from his fight against Brian Ortega earlier this year when Edgar suffered the first knockout loss of his entire MMA career. The loss to Ortega was completely shocking and came out of nowhere and for a second there it seemed like Edgar might be on the decline, but he went out and dominated Swanson in the pair’s rematch and now Edgar has won three of his last four bouts. He is one of the most successful and talented featherweights in the UFC and even at 36 you can’t write him off from title contention just yet.
Jung (14-4) returned to the UFC last year after a four-year layoff and knocked out Dennis Bermudez in devastating fashion to re-emerge as a featherweight title contender after a long layoff due to completely military service in his native South Korea. But even despite the layoff, Jung is still only 31 and has tons of time left in the sport, and that’s a good thing for UFC fans as Jung is a very exciting fighter when he’s healthy and competing. He’s actually 4-1 overall in the UFC and his only loss in the Octagon came against Jose Aldo in a fight where he was injured. He’s a total wild card at this point of his career due to his inactivity and injuries. I expect Edgar to be a big favorite in this fight due to his experience and winning pedigree, but I wouldn’t completely count out Jung as we’ve seen him pull off a number of big upsets in the past. This is going to be a fantastic fight at UFC 229 and I’ll be curious to see what the main event will be.
