VANCOUVER – Tae Hyun Bang flattened Kajan Johnson and pocketed $100,000 in bonus money in the process. Imagine what he could have done had he not felt lethargic.
“From what I thought, my body felt heavier,” Bang said following his UFC 174 win. “I was in good condition for the fight, but my body just felt heavy, like lethargic, like I wasn’t moving as fast as I usually move.”
Bang (17-8 MMA, 1-1 UFC) and Johnson (19-11-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) met on the FX-broadcast preliminary card of Saturday’s UFC 174 event at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena. Bang looked sharp from the opening, nearly finishing the fight with a crisp barrage in the first round, but a gritty Johnson refused to be silenced so easily.
“When I knocked him down in the first round, I was trying to go for the finish there, but I wasn’t able to finish him because Kajan is such a good athlete,” Bang admitted.
Johnson even rebounded in the second, using his rangy limbs to attack from distance. But in the third, Bang flattened his opponent with a brutal right hand that would see him awarded $50,000 for one of the evening’s “Performance of the Night” award, as well as another $50,000 for one half of the card’s “Fight of the Night.”
Despite the impressive win, Bang said he’s planning on better performances in his future UFC appearances.
“I want to work on pretty much everything – my ground, my wrestling, my striking, my athleticism,” Bang said. “I just want to come back as a better mixed martial artist every time I step out there.”
For complete coverage of UFC 174, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.
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