The featherweight king, Alexander Volkanovski promised an improved version of himself, and that is what the world was shown, with the 33-year-old extending his undefeated run to 21 bouts earlier today.
Volkanovski put on a masterclass all-around game plan to dominate Chan Sung Jung, forcing the referee Herb Dean to stop the punishment early in the fourth round.
“The Korean Zombie” was dropped and rocked multiple times throughout the fight and his face was visibly bruised by the end of the first round. Despite having a height disadvantage, Volkanovski utilised his jab to find his distance, mixing it up with leg kicks and the occasional takedown.
By the end of the third round, the fight was already in danger of being stopped with the doctor taking a close look at Jung before allowing it to continue.
Volkanovski immediately capitalised landing a combination of heavy strikes and with Jung refusing to give in, the referee had finally seen enough and rightfully called the contest.
“Too f***ing good,” Volkanovski yelled inside the cage in what many would call his most impressive performance to date.
An emotional Jung went on to comment that he revaluation where he is in his career, before stating it could be his last time competing. He dropped to the canvas following his speech and was met on the way out of the cage by Volkanovski who consoled the South Korean veteran in a great moment of sportsmanship.
Volkanovski moves his record to 24-1 (UFC 11-0) while Jung drops to 17-7 (7-4).
In the semi-main event, Aljamain Sterling successfully defended the bantamweight title with a closely contested split decision victory against Petr Yan in a fight that could have gone either way. Sterling had dominant rounds 2 and 3 while Yan came back strong in the later rounds so the fight arguably came down to how you scored the first round.
Yan felt that he did enough commenting post-fight “I think I won this fight and got robbed. I want a rematch.”
It’s a second straight loss for Yan who lost his title to Sterling a little over a year ago due to disqualification, after dominating the contest, and now drops to 16-3. Sterling moves to 21-3.
Gilbert Burns and Khamzat Chimaev put on an early contender for fight of the year with Chimaev hanging on to remain undefeated in his toughest challenge to date.
UFC 273 took place at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Florida, USA and was broadcast live on Mainevent PPV.
Full Results:
- Alexander Volkanovski def. Chan Sung Jung via TKO (Punches), Rd 4, 0:45
- Aljamain Sterling def. Petr Yan via Decision (Split)
- Khamzat Chimaev def. Gilbert Burns via Decision (Unanimous)
- Mackenzie Dern def. Tecia Torres via Decision (Split)
- Mark O. Madsen def. Vinc Pichel via Decision (Unanimous)
- Ian Garry def. Darian Weeks via Decision (Unanimous)
- Anthony Hernandez def. Josh Fremd via Decision (Unanimous)
- Raquel Pennington def. Aspen Ladd via Decision (Unanimous)
- Mike Malott def. Mickey Gall via TKO (Punches), Rd 1, 3:41
- Alexey Oleynik def. Jared Vanderaa via Submission (Scarf Hold), Rd 1, 3:39
- Piera Rodriguez def. Kay Hansen via Decision (Unanimous)
- Julio Arce def. Daniel Gustavo Santos via Decision (Unanimous)
