Dong Hyun Kim has had a a tough time of late. He was supposed to fight on one of the biggest cards of the year in UFC 202, but was forced to pull out of his bout with Neil Magny due to injury.
Now he rebounds against Gunner Nelson, a man who seemed reborn in his last victory against Albert Tumenov at UFC Rotterdam.
“Stun Gun” hasn’t fought since November 2015, when he picked up a TKO win over Dominic Waters. A win against “Gunni” at UFC Belfast for the South Korean native would make it five wins in six and propel him right back into the title picture of a stacked division.
However, the big issue for Kim is getting past the man that seems to have rediscovered the form which saw him being touted as such a bright prospect coming out of Europe. Stun Gun has won four of his last five, but the one loss in that grouping was against the only ranked fighter at the time. Who also now happens to be the current champion, Tyron Woodley.
That trend has always been there for the talented Korean. His first loss came against Carlos Condit and after bouncing back from that with a win over Sean Pierson he came undone against Demian Maia. Admittedly by way of a freak muscle spasm, but that in turn came from attempting to fight off a take-down. Nelson will be all about the take-down on November 19 and if Kim can’t fend him off he’s in deep, deep trouble.
With a TD of 82% you’d have to imagine that Kim would be confident of fighting off Nelson’s attempts to bring this fight to the ground, but aside from the Woodley fight (where he was KO’d in 61 seconds) and the contest with Maia which ended in 47 seconds, he hasn’t fought someone who’s going to be looking to drag this fight to the ground.
And that’s were I see him struggling. Kim is a wonderful striker, but his tendencies to try the spectacular can leave him open at times. Condit used it to his advantage with the flying knee KO. Nelson likes to soften you up with strikes and then ensnare you on the ground. Brandon Thatch being the best example. A solid straight right landed plush allowing Nelson to take the fight to the ground and submit Thatch. All in under three minutes.
How Kim can take advantage and win the fight is easy. Try and keep it standing. While Nelson showed vast improvements on his feet in his last fight against Tumenov, in the Maia fight and the Rick Story fight he took a lot of damage.
Nelson absorbs 3.73 strikes per minute inside the Octagon. Against a man with a four inch reach advantage that’s going to be a problem and also why Kim should be expecting that take-down attempt. He will look to close the distance, clinch and then level change for the take-down. This fight will be won on weather or not those attempts are successful. With a home crowd on his back and on the judges back Kim can’t afford to be spending prolonged periods of the fight on his arse.
It’s an intriguing fight in one of the UFC’s most stacked divisions. If “Stun Gun” comes away with the win we have a new contender in the mix and a host of possible match ups. If “Gunni” wins we have a man coming back into form at precisely the right time of his career. Kim has struggled against the upper echelons of the UFC’s Welterweight division and if Nelson beats him it’s proof he deserves to be there.
