This excellent fight flies under the radar, as two rising light
heavyweights get stern tests. Jacoby’s return to the UFC has been
shockingly successful, particularly given how forgettable his first
stint was. Jacoby was signed in 2011, lost two untelevised prelims
over the course of three months and was released shortly
thereafter. From there, Jacoby eventually fell into a kickboxing
career, putting together some solid success before transitioning
back to mixed martial arts in 2020 and earning a UFC contract with
a win on Dana White’s Contender Series. Jacoby has gone undefeated
since, and it has been interesting to watch him thread a needle at
light heavyweight. He has been able to command a lot of his
opponents with striking from range—an approach that traditionally
figures to get blown up in the athlete-heavy waters at light
heavyweight. Despite some occasional troubles, most notably against
Ion
Cutelaba in a fight that went to a draw, “The Hanyak” has been
able to coast his way to victory and quietly move up the ladder,
with this interesting test against Jung coming up next. Jung is an
obvious talent who has flashed a lot of different things through
five UFC fights—with one draw as part of an undefeated record in
the Octagon—though it is still hard to get a read on exactly how
“Sseda” approaches things as a result. Jung came to the UFC as a
fighter who can be patient to a fault, which has shown up at times,
particularly in that lone draw against Sam Alvey in
2020. At other times, Jung just simply lays a beating on his
opponent, whether it was a quick knockout of Mike
Rodriguez in 2019 or his most recent fight, which saw him use
some vicious elbows to put away Kennedy
Nzechukwu in about three minutes. Then there is Jung’s win over
William
Knight, which saw the Korean pivot to a wrestling-heavy
strategy that, while extremely successful, was not foreshadowed and
has not appeared since. The overall package seems set to coalesce
into something impressive, but at the moment, it is unclear what to
make of how Jung is going to approach this fight, particularly as a
tricky affair for both men. Each fighter tends to work best when
isolated by his height and reach, and whoever winds up being more
comfortable with this “tall man” dynamic figures to have a lot of
opportunities to take over the fight. The Alvey bout does raise
some worry that Jung could be cowed by fighting someone with the
potential to hit him at all times, but it does feel like the Korean
has more options with which to work, particularly with that
wrestling in his back pocket if he decides to go that route once
again. In what essentially feels like a coinflip, the pick is Jung
via decision.
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