Jun Yong Park, 32, has been recognised for his mixed martial arts skills by the UFC’s official top 15 rankings. It’s even more positive when it comes from the media of the opponent’s country.
UFC Fight Night 224 takes place on 16 July in Enterprise, Nevada, USA. Park will face Albert Durayev (34-Russia) at middleweight (-84kg).
According to Russian fight media outlet Fight Time, “Durayev is really unlucky. Jun Yong Park, who knows how to fight without being driven by desire, is truly one of the top 15 UFC middleweights.”
Park, who entered the UFC in 2018 as the top-ranked Russian Real Fight middleweight, has gone 6-2 in the UFC since 2019, but has never been officially ranked. However, Fight Time praised his South Korean opponent, saying, “I don’t think Durayev has a chance to win.”안전놀이터
Durayev fights out of Russia’s Absolute Championship Berkut, where he was the 2016 welterweight (-77kg) and 2017-2018 middleweight champion. He entered the UFC through the Contender Series in 2021 in the aftermath of COVID-19 and is 2-1.
ACB changed its name to Absolute Championship Akhmat in 2019. It joins the UFC, Bellator, Professional Fighters League (USA), ONE Championship (Singapore), Rizin (Japan), Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki (Poland), and Cage Warriors (UK) as the nine largest organisations in mixed martial arts.
The Contender Series is a talent search organised by UFC President Dana White (54-USA) himself. In his career, Durayev has been rated as the 21st best UFC middleweight in the fourth quarter of 2018 and the first three quarters of 2019 by the mixed martial arts rankings system FightMatrix.
While his ranking has dropped somewhat since the coronavirus pandemic, Durayev still deserves to be called a middleweight powerhouse. However, ‘Fight Time’ said: “He has good self-control and refined technique. He also knows how to fight rough when he needs to.”
The 22 May Fight Matrix rankings also showed Park as the 27th-ranked UFC middleweight, ahead of 36th-ranked Durayev. “Durayev is nervous because he has yet to prove himself in the UFC,” said Fight Time. Park will go into this fight with confidence.”
Park is also a regular on the second season of JTBC’s football programme ‘Together We Can’. A win over Durayev would move him into a tie for second place on the UFC’s all-time Korean wins list. He has a chance to make a name for himself.
His physical disadvantage is variable, with a height of 178-180cm and a wingspan (arms + shoulders) of 185-191cm. For Park, he’ll need to stay calm against Durayev and not be rattled by the changes in the situation, as praised by Fight Time.