- Joined
- Apr 12, 2013
- Messages
- 7,567
- Reaction score
- 4,478
(Rough Translation provided by one of the Youtube Comments):
- Match against Max Holloway has been finalized. It will be on August 26th Saturday (assuming it is Korean time) held in Singapore.
- In late April, the match was almost finalized since the UFC supported making any match happen Max wanted. Early May, the match was finalized. Singapore being the strong candidate, there were some other locations that were being considered. It took about a month and a half to pick the location.
- I think it is the first time fighting in Asia besides Korea. I like it because there is not much of a time zone difference. My friends and family have an easier time to watch me fight because it is close. A lot of them told me that they already booked their flights after hearing the news. And I thought to myself ‘’I lived a good life’’ (referring to having a lot of people care about him).
- Question from PD@ This is the 10th match in a row that were 5 rounders. Aren’t you tired of it? Do you want to do a 3 rounder? KZ’s reponse@ I wanted to transition to a 3 rounder match, but if it is against Max, I am fine with a 5 rounder
- I weighed 79kg (174 pounds) this morning. I am having bit of a hard time losing weight and I think it is because I am not young anymore. When I was in my 20s, I was always skeptical of fighters in their 30s saying that weight loss isn’t easy. Now that I am in their shoes, I am experiencing what they were talking about. But it isn’t a problem. I have almost 20 years of experience, and losing weight would not be a problem. I have never failed matching weight in my career.
- Regarding my condition, I would be lying if I said there are no parts that doesn’t hurt. But they are not any serious injuries that prevents me from stepping into the octagon. I had a lot of issues with my shoulder throughout my career, but it should be fine this time as there are no huge problems with it right now.
- I am not traveling to the U.S. for training this time. I will be in Korea for training. I have learned a lot during my career and I think I can train myself in my hometown. The usual differences what you get from training in the U.S. are coaches, sparring partners, nutrition, and conditioning. From what I have learned about those aspects, I am confident that I can replicate those aspects in Korea.
- Coach Dong Ho Ha has been doing better than expected and I have trust in him. My sparring partner is Jun Young Hong, a double champion in Korea. I imagine a lot of people will criticize or be skeptical of having a sparring partner as Jun Young Hong when preparing for Max Holloway. I want to say this regarding that. I can’t get a sparring partner as good as Jun Young Hong if I train in the U.S. He is doing a great job as a sparring partner. Jun Young Hong has the same height and reach as Holloway, and similar boxing style as Holloway as well. It is not easy to find a sparring partner like that. So don’t worry a lot about my sparring partner.
- When I think about what striking skills am I good at. I think it is ‘’just fight’’. Instead of a formulized style of fighting, I am trying to find a more unorthodox style of fighting. It is a hard topic to think about. I have heard a lot of opinions saying ‘’KZ lost the dog in him, lost his sense of the game, etc’’. I want to say that those are not aspects that can be appeared in numbers. I don’t even know how to approach those aspects to improve.
- When I trained in the U.S. in the past, I always listened and followed every opinion coaches had. Those opinions worked really well for me during the sparring sessions. But for this upcoming match, I am cutting down the number of sparring sessions to 2 or 3 times a day (2 or 3 rounds each). Instead of what all of the previous coaches have been telling me what to do, I am going to train on what I believe is best for me. That way, I would have no regrets.
- Some people might think about this match ‘’KZ is trying to beat Holloway to get his rankings up so that he could get another title shot’’. That doesn’t align with my thinking. Max is a fighter I respect. He is a fighter I like. Is it wrong to just wanting to fight him? My heart just pounds thinking about fighting Max in the octagon.
- (Talking about fight against Alex Volkanovski) A lot of people have been talking about how I lost to Volk in such a helpless fashion. I know that too. I personally know in detail why I lost. I just don’t want to say it out loud because it will definitely sound like excuses. But in order to make my reasoning not sound like excuses, I have to get a rematch against Volk which was impossible. However, if I beat Holloway, I can prove to myself that my reasoning on why I lost to Volk could be legitimized. I want to find out how competitive I can be and how much of a fighter I am with this fight. My passion has been revived. I want to fight. Please cheer me on. Thank you. I will win and come back (to Korea).
