Dong Hyun Kim pre-UFC highlight video

Just found this on youtube.
really interesting to see how much Kim's style changed after becoming a UFC fighter.

 

Easier to strike with cans. he is not a great striker in ufc standard imo

 

I think he has great striking but he just wants to stay conservative and not open up on the feet. A lot of fighters who train with him and know about him say he's a very good striker (including Frank Mir and Dominick Cruz)

But of course training and fighting in the octagon are two different things

 

yup I remember Frank Mir kept talking about how shocked he was with Kim's boxing.
He just tries to be much more conservative imo.

 

yeah true but you can see Kim's striking is nowhere near as bad as people make it seem. just because his opponents are borderline cans doesnt discredit Kim's use of footwork, combos, and counter striking abilities.

 

Yea, I remember. I wonder how much time kim spends in Las Vegas. He should pick an American camp to work on his striking, but I guess he's confident with Team MAD

 

When did Mir comment on DHK's hands? I'd love to read the article or view the video.

 

I think he should try to spend as much time as he can in Thailand working on Muay Thai & weaving it into his game. Thailand is not a horrible flight from South Korea...5 hours.

 

Seems like they got a pretty good team in Korea as well.

 

it's mentioned briefly here: http://mfight.co.kr/news/news_view.php?bcode=1&lcode=1&mcode=1&scode=1&code=&Page=&number=23442

in the section about his fight with karo.

 

Actually Kim blamed a lot of his bad habits(striking wise) for MMA on his Muay Thai background said it made him too flat footed. Hes actually switched his training in striking . he trains mostly in boxing gyms even though the TEAM MAD striking coach is an MT guy.

You could see in the Sean Pierson fight his standup implements much more footwork and is bouncier because of the boxing training.

 

I think his switch from striking kore to being more conservative has alot to do with him switching camps. He originally trained with Jung shim kwon in Seoul, which was a more striking oriented camp compared to Team MAD.

 

yeah theres some credence to that but if you watch his earlier fights he was much more of a grappler also(before his DEEP career). I even heard he would pull guard and was like mainly a bjj guy. His nickname at the start of his career was actually Korean Nogueria or something.