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Kim Jae Woong will be competing for the first time this year at ONE: Only the Brave this Friday, January 28 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. 'The Fighting God' recently revealed he hasn't concentrated on enhancing his ground game while preparing for his battle with Tang Kai.
The South Korean MMA fighter will be bringing a 12-5 professional MMA record to his next fight. Eight of his wins have come via knockout. Meanwhile, his opponent owns a 13-2 record and has never recorded a submission win.
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Doing his homework before this bout, Kim doesn't see the match going to the ground that much. In an interview with The AllStar, he said:
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"Against Tang Kai, I’m not really focusing on grappling and wrestling too much because even if unexpectedly Tang Kai tries to shoot for a takedown or tries to submit me or something, I’m confident that I can defend everything and react to it very well so I’m not focusing on it."
Kim is currently the top contender for the lightweight championship. With the title fight between Garry Tonon and Thanh Le being postponed from its initial December date, he has had to risk his top ranking in order to make ends meet.
Kai has always been known as a striker. With that in mind, Kim has managed his training camp by focusing on going toe-to-toe with his opponent in the the standup realm. However, he has also worked a little bit on his grappling.
"I’m training all areas of MMA because this is MMA, so I am training and wrestling as well but I'm focusing more on striking because I expect this bout to be a striking match."
Catch Kim Jae Woong's full interview with The AllStar below:
Kim Jae Woong sees little improvement to Tang Kai's fighting style in his recent bouts in ONE Championship
Tang Kai has competed five times in ONE Championship and has not tasted a loss since debuting back in January 2019. Breaking down his fights from past to present, Kim Jae Woong observed that the Chinese fighter had the same tendencies in each bout.
"During the early stage of ONE Championship, he was an out boxer who liked to step out, use his distance and use his left head kick a lot... His style changed a bit and I believe that is his style."
Kai has not been beaten in his last eight professional MMA bouts. With that in mind, this is a risky fight for Kim and could mean giving up his title shot and top contender status in the ONE Championship lightweight division if he loses.
