Doo Ho Choi, after a long hiatus from victory due to losses and mandatory military service, emotionally celebrated his knockout win over Bill Algeo at UFC Vegas 94, expressing gratitude to his mentor “Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung for his support.
Doo Ho Choi let it all hang out during and after his fight at UFC Vegas 94.
It had been a long time since Choi tasted victory inside the octagon. Thanks to a combination of losses and inactivity, you’d have to go back to 2016 to find Choi’s most recent win—a fast knockout of Thiago Tavares that preceded a future Hall of Fame fight with Cub Swanson at UFC 206.
On Saturday, Choi finally had his hand raised again. Following a tough fight with Bill Algeo, which ended with Choi knocking out a stunned Algeo in the second round, he was visibly emotional afterward. He described what was going through his mind in that moment while speaking to the media backstage at UFC APEX in Las Vegas.
“I got emotional because this win was a long time coming,” Choi said via a Korean translator. “It’s been a while. It’s been a while since I won, and the last time it didn’t go very well.”
He continued, “I heard all the haters, all the people that said I’m done and I can’t do it anymore. It started to affect me. I started to doubt myself a little bit.”
“I was thinking, ‘Is this really it? Am I really done?’” he added. “I kept faith in myself and I had to prove it to myself, and I proved it to myself tonight, so that’s why I’m emotional.”
Choi, fondly known as “The Korean Superboy,” was just 23 when he made his UFC debut with an 18-second knockout of Juan Manuel Puig in 2014. He won 14 of his first 15 pro bouts before falling short in a classic brawl against Swanson.
Two more losses followed. Then came two years of mandatory military service in South Korea. Returning in February 2023 against Kyle Nelson, Choi could only muster a majority draw after receiving a point deduction for a head butt in the third round.
Through all that? He remained optimistic.
“I know this is the one thing that I’m good at,” Choi said. “If I try my best and leave it all out there and if it doesn’t go my way, then I can accept that maybe I don’t have it.”
He added confidently, “I kept believing in myself and kept trying and I got it done.”
Choi had an extra boost Saturday with the legendary “Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung in his corner. Though not officially part of Jung’s team, he considers Jung to be a mentor; they work closely together when preparing for fights.
He made sure to thank Jung both in his post-fight speech and during his media scrum.
“I’m very thankful for ‘Zombie’ because he puts into my fights the amount effort that he put into his past title fights,” Choi said gratefully. “That’s the amount of care that he puts into my camps.”
Watch Choi’s post-fight media scrum below, courtesy of FanSided MMA.