'The Korean Zombie' decides against UFC retirement but taking things one step at a time

“The Korean Zombie” will fight on.

Following his UFC 273 loss to Alexander Volkanovski, Chan Sung Jung voiced uncertainty about his fighting future. The bout was his second career UFC title loss by TKO, and during his post-fight interview in the cage, Jung became emotional as he hinted he might be done fighting.

However, the competitive juices appear to still be flowing. Recently, Jung posted on his Instagram that he expects to fight at least one more time. Long-term plans are murky, but he’ll take it fight by fight in the short term.

“Perhaps I’m old, maybe I’m not good enough, so my goal was to always show everything in every fight, but I didn’t show up every time, so that is why I’m still here,” Jung wrote in Korean. “I couldn’t prove it in the last fight, and I’m especially disappointed. This is not an excuse for the loss. I just have some regrets. I’m not saying that it wasn’t 100 percent me, but I think it is right to put on a performance that I believe in, so that is why I want one more fight. I can’t set any long-term goals. For the time being, one fight… I’ll do it in Seoul. Please hold an event.”

Jung, 35, is 4-3 since he returned from a mandatory military stint for his home country of South Korea. His wins during that stretch came against Dennis Bermudez, Renato Moicano, Frankie Edgar, and Dan Ige. The losses were to Volkanovksi, Brian Ortega, and Yair Rodriguez.

The quote in this story was translated from Korean to English using a translator.