After "Stan Gun" Kim Dong Hyun, the Korea who wrote the history of Korean fighters... "Iron Turtle" Park Joon-yong tries to win 10 UFC games

*This content was translated by AI.

"Iron Turtle" Park Joon-yong (35) will once again embark on his journey to the 10th UFC victory for the second time in Korean history. He will return to the Octagon in six months, leaving behind the disappointment of the last match against Aliskerov.

Park Joon-yong, who is active in the UFC middleweight (83.9kg), will face Edman Shabazian (28, USA) at the UFC Fight Night Vegas 115 at Meta Apex in Las Vegas on April 5 (Korea time).

This game is very important to Park Jun-yong. This is because it is a return match after being blocked by Ikram Aliskerov's strong wrestling wall in "UFC 321: Aspinal vs. Gan" held in October last year and suffered a unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).

At that time, Park Joon-yong was frustrated at the threshold of entering the middleweight rankings, allowing Aliskerov five takedowns under the direction of Khabib Nurmagomedov.

His performance was good. The opponent, Aliskerov, even said, "Even if I hit him with my fist or take-down, he kept getting up and pressing me, so I was a really uncomfortable opponent."

However, Park Joon-yong, who swallowed his disappointment because he could not take the result, will be the second Korean player to record a double-digit UFC win after "Stungeon" Kim Dong-hyun (13 wins) when he wins the match.

His opponent, Shabazian, is also formidable. Like Park Joon-yong, Shabazian, who made his UFC debut in 2019, is a strong player with a career record of 16 wins and 5 losses. In particular, he is enjoying his second heyday by winning three consecutive games in 2025. In October, he finished Andre Muniz, who suffered a defeat to Park Joon-yong, in the first round, and gained momentum.

The two players have something in common that they are complete fighters, but their styles are sharply divided. Park Joon-yong's strength is his second-half round operation with strong physical strength enough to win six of his nine UFC wins by decision. On the other hand, Shabazian is a typical slugger with a career finish rate of 88 percent and the record of most KO wins (6 times) among UFC middleweight active players. The initial firepower is strong enough to end most of the wins in the first round.

But Shabazian also has weaknesses. The long-term winning rate drops sharply enough to lose five games in eight games beyond the first round. For Park Joon-yong, the key to the game is whether to lead the game to the second half with long-term pressure after enduring Shabazian's explosive firepower in the early stages.

Currently, only five UFC middleweight active players have won more than 10 games, including Brad Tavares, Robert Whitaker and Israel Adesanya.

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*This content was translated by AI.