Asian MMA

Cha Jung-Hwan, Choi Young unify middleweight championship at ROAD FC 048

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Image for Cha Jung-Hwan, Choi Young unify middleweight championship at ROAD FC 048

ROAD Fighting Championship announces the official opening of ROAD FC 048 which will take place at the Wonju Gymnasium in the ROAD FC hometown of Wonju, South Korea onĀ July 28, 2018.

The Middleweight Title Unification will be held between Champion Cha Jung-Hwan and Interim Champion Choi Young. Also, prospect Hwang In-Su will face veteran Yang Hae-Jun.

The ROAD FC middleweight title will be unified when world champion Cha Jung-Hwan (13-6-3, MMA Story) faces interim champion “RYO” Choi Young (20-11-3, Shinbukan/Land’s End) at ROAD FC 048.

This will also be a rematch of their match-up from ROAD FC 035, Cha defeated Young to make the first defense of his middleweight title.

Cha is one of Korea’s first generation fighters from the Spirit MC days. He holds knockout wins over Ryo Chonan and Igor Gracie and has been putting on fantastic performances since ROAD FC 002. All of his excellent showings earned him a middleweight title shot against the dominant Riki Fukuda at ROAD FC 028.

The champion Fukuda, who was on a stellar streak of wins and finishes, was upset in round two. Cha Jung-Hwan was the winner by knockout. After the thriller of an upset, Cha then made his first aforementioned title defense against Choi Young, knocking him out in the fourth round.

Former DEEP middleweight King, Choi made his return to Korea for the first time in ten years at ROAD FC 031 in May of 2016. He faced popular judoka and PRIDE veteran Yoon Dong-Sik, winning via second-round beatdown. This earned him the first shot at ROAD FC gold when he met Cha initially.

The first meeting between Cha and Choi was closely contested throughout but also riddled with some controversy. Cha had grabbed the fence multiple times during the duration of the contest, avoiding throw and takedown attempts that could have changed the tide of the fight. So ROAD FC did the right thing and set up a rematch between the two.

The rematch was initially set for ROAD FC 039, but Cha was forced out of the contest due to injury. This made ROAD FC introduce an interim middleweight title. Hoon Kim was opposite Choi after a big upset win over Riki Fukuda. Kim went for the finish every chance he had, but Choi fought smart and won the three-round battle to earn himself the interim title, and another shot at Cha Jung-Hwan.

Finally, the rematch for the unification of the Middleweight Championship between Cha Jung-Hwan and Choi Young will take place at ROAD FC 048!

Also announced for the card is another middleweight firefight. Impressive rookie Hwang In-Su (4-0, Team Mad) gets a jump in competition when he faces veteran Yang Hae-Jun (11-5, Team Posse) who is making his ROAD FC debut.

Hwang’s year one run saw him knockout all opponent’s in the first round. Including wins over the more experienced Park Jung-Kyo and Kim Nae-Chul, both inside of a minute. Yang is expected to be a legitimate challenge to Hwang.

From Spirit FC and Neofight to international acclaim at Legend FCYang has been known as a powerful threat and knockout artist for quite some time now. His match-up with Hwang will be his highly-anticipated return to action following a two-year hiatus


These are the only fights announced for ROAD FC 048 so far. But with ROAD FC 047 looming, expect ROAD FC 048 to start rolling out some fight announcements very soon.

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