MMA athlete Yoo Soo Young might have just pulled off the most surprising title victory ever. The Korean athlete won the bantamweight championship on one-day notice.
Yoo Soo Young is a professional mixed martial artist who still has a little experience in the cage. He recently competed at Kazakhstan-based MMA promotion Naiza FC where he was given an unexpected title shot against Aydin Kodekov. The pair exchanged blows at Naiza FC 44Â and were featured in the co-main event.
However, Young wasn’t Kodekov’s planned opponent. Kodekov was supposed to face Elaman Shertaev. Unfortunately, Shertaev failed to make weight a week before the showdown and was pulled from the card. Just one day before the event kicked off, Yoo Soo Young was chosen to replace Shertaev.
Young was pretty much not prepared when he was offered the title shot. Despite being on such short notice, the 26-year-old still took the chance, and it definitely was not a bad decision.
Yoo Soo Young displayed his expertise in Brazilian jiu jitsu. The action mostly occurred on the ground and ‘Super Korean’ kept dominating the former champion. He eventually found the opportunity to lock an arm triangle choke early in the fourth round and submitted Kodekov.
With that victory, Young earned his first professional mixed martial arts championship since 2014. Before entering the cage against Kodekov, he defeated Jung Kyun Kim and bounced back from a loss against Sarvadzhon Khamidov. Young has a total record consisting of 9 wins and 2 losses.
Meanwhile, Aydin Kodekov had three consecutive victories before taking on Young. The first one was back when he was still competing in another promotion. His second outing was his promotional debut within Naiza FC. And the third was a title shot victory against Zhakhongir Nazhmedinov back in March. Kodekov has a total record consisting of 12 wins and 5 losses in his pro MMA run.