When World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) held their one and only pay-per-view event before closing up shop and being absorbed into the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), they hoped to entice potential buyers with a couple of free fight offerings on Spike TV.
The first was future WEC lightweight champ Anthony Pettis choking out The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 1 veteran Alex Karalexis with a triangle choke.
The second would go down as the 2010 Fight of the Year.
For 15 minutes, Chan Sung Jung and Leonard Garcia stood toe to toe and went to war. "Bad Boy" earned the split decision nod and less than a year later, the two warriors met once again -- this time inside the Octagon -- to settle the score.
Before "Korean Zombie" tangles with Dustin Poirier in the main event of Tuesday's (May 15) UFC on FUEL TV 3 event, we'll take a look at that rematch and its remarkable finish.
Let's go.
The two touch gloves and Jung throws an outside leg kick to start things off. Garcia answers back with his own and connects with a left hook on top of it. A high kick from "Bad Boy" misses its mark and he eats another leg kick from his opponent.
Both fighters are measured in their approach to start but a little over a minute into the round, inklings of their previous war begin to seep through. A bomb from Garcia connects and he throws an equally devastating leg kick which "Korean Zombie" counters with a beautiful straight.
The two featherweights begin throwing heavy leather, swinging their fists wildly through the air while still maintaining a bit of control. We'll see if that control still remains later on into the bout.
A wild exchange leads to Jung nailing a takedown and they end up in an awkward north-south position. They scramble and Jung begins to threaten with an armbar but "Bad Boy" defends well enough, despite getting hammerfisted in the face. Garcia manages to get back to his feet but remains stuck inside a headlock.
"Korean Zombie" pushes his opponent against the cage and lands a couple of knees, one of which is illegal as Garcia's hand was on the mat when it connected. The referee doesn't catch it and the Greg Jackson fighter drops to the mat and soon Jung is able to transition to full mount.
With the seconds ticking away in the opening round, the Korean fighter begins to open up and then takes Garcia's back as "Bad Boy" tries to shake him off. The horn finally sounds and Garcia survives.
The second round begins as the first did, with each fighter calmly and slowly trying to find a defensive opening rather than flying out of their respective corner, guns blazing.
The flashiest move busted out in this period is a flying knee from Garcia which connects to Jung's midsection. The Korean export throws one of his own later, which grazes his opponent's skull.
"Bad Boy," the entire fight, has shucked his reputation of throwing punches simply for the sake of throwing them and is throwing combinations and keeping busy on his feet. That is, up until the middle of the second round, where he begins throwing haymakers almost exclusively.
It has almost everything to do with the fact Jung has been attacking the leg with kicks and peppering Garcia with punches for nearly eight minutes while absorbing little damage himself. As the second round continues, the gap between the two fighters' offensive output begins to widen even more.
An uppercut from Jung lands and forces Garcia to retreat. He immediately eats a flying knee to the jaw and "Korean Zombie" goads his American opponent into a slugfest. "Bad Boy" throws a head kick while Jung throws one low, knocking Garcia onto his back.
Jung follows him to the canvas and ends up his his opponent's guard. A punch from "Korean Zombie" lands and he follows it up with three elbows, each more vicious than its predecessor. Garcia throws his legs up to create distance between him and his foe but Jung simply shoves them aside and ends up taking his back again, just like he did a round previous.
He wraps both his legs around one of Garcia's and shifts off the Greg Jackson fighter's back. He then snakes his arms around "Bad Boy's" neck and contorts his opponents neck and spine in a move Brazilian jiu-jitsu players know as a twister.
Body twisted in a devious manner, Garcia has no other choice but to tap. Jung, who many felt won their first encounter but was victim of the Leonard Garcia Judging Curse, vindicates himself with a definitive and electrifying win.
He would follow the win up with a seven second knockout over Mark Hominick at UFC 140, the man who took Jose Aldo to the absolute limit.
Can "Korean Zombie" continue his hot streak against Poirier and earn himself a title shot?