Over 14,000 fans attended WEC 48 to see hometown hero Urijah Faber fight Jose Aldo in the main event of WEC’s first ever PPV. But, before the PPV even started, Sacramento and the MMA world witnessed one of the greatest fights in MMA history as ‘The Korean Zombie’ Chan Sung Jung fought Leonard Garcia in a 3 round ‘war’.
Sitting no more than 10 feet from the cage, I couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing. I remember watching Griffin vs Bonnar on ‘The Ultimate Fighter season 1 Finale’ and saying “oh my god that was unbelievableâ€. Well, history repeated itself with Jung and Garcia and I found myself saying the same thing.
For 3 rounds, both men went “toe-to-toe†in what will surely be considered one of the greatest fights of all time. In fact, Dana White said in the post-fight press conference, that it was one of the greatest fights he has ever seen. He said you could put it right up there with Griffin and Bonnar. Dana was physically pumped up over this fight. It was over 4 hours after the epic encounter and Dana was acting like the fight was going on as he was speaking. But who can blame him?
All of us in the media section were just as pumped. We were witnessing history and we all joined in the standing ovation when the fight came to an end. Unfortunately, there was a bit of controversy with the fight’s outcome. In fact, it didn’t sit well with the crowd that packed into Arco Arena. They were loudly booing the result.
Garcia won by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) improving his record to 17-5 while Jung suffered defeat (10-2) in his first WEC fight. Even as I look at our “official†copy of the scorecard, I still can’t believe that this fight wasn’t a draw. And most of the fans would echo the same sentiment.
After the announced decision, Jung fell to the mat in major disappointment that he lost. To his credit, he started out as the crowd’s whipping boy but quickly won them over with each bone crunching minute. And yes, there were crunching bones. Garcia broke his hand in the first round but kept fighting.
During the press conference, Garcia and Jung came out with splints, ice, and bandages. They toughed out the press conference just like their fight. Eventually, they were both placed on a stretcher and wheeled out of Arco Arena to the nearby hospital.
As I watched them being loaded into the ambulances, they never showed one ounce of regret. They carried their “war wounds†like a badge of honor. The rag-tag group of fans that remained outside the arena, cheered for both of them as the EMTs loaded them into the back of the ambulance. It’s was a poetic ending to one of the greatest fights Dana White, WEC, UFC, MMA fans, fighters, 14,000 in attendance, and I have ever seen.
