5 Things You Might Not Know About Jae Woong Kim

Jae Woong Kim patiently waits his turn in the One Championship featherweight division, even as another significant obstacle looms on the horizon.

The 28-year-old Extreme Combat representative will toe the line against Chinese knockout artist Kai Tang in a featured attraction at One Championship “Only the Brave” this Friday at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore. Kim climbs into the cage on the strength of back-to-back victories. He last competed at One Championship “Revolution,” where he punched out former two-division titleholder Martin Nguyen in the first round of their Sept. 24 encounter.

As Kim inches toward his high-stakes confrontation with Tang, here are five things you might not know about him:

1. His youth was not wasted on the young.

Kim made his professional mixed martial arts debut at the age of 19 when he disposed of Hyun Joo Kim with punches 2:08 into the first round of their Gladiator 37 pairing on June 18, 2012 in Gumi, South Korea. He compiled a 4-2 record in six bouts before turning 21.

2. A championship pedigree precedes him.

“The Fighting God” laid claim to the Top Fighting Championship featherweight crown in March 2017, as he cut down Seung Woo Choi with punches a mere 36 seconds into their TFC 14 headliner. Choi returned the favor and took the 145-pound championship by force when he knocked out Kim in the second round of their rematch a little less than nine months later.

3. Some tread has already begun to show on his tires.

Kim has fought in six different countries over the course of his 17-fight career. He has gone 7-2 in his native South Korea, 2-0 in the Philippines, 2-0 in Singapore, 1-1 in Japan, 0-1 in China and 0-1 in Indonesia. That equates to more than 23,000 miles of round-trip travel as the crow flies.

4. He rarely involves the judges.

The former Top Fighting Championship titleholder has delivered eight of his 12 career victories by knockout or technical knockout, six of them inside one round. Kim has not gone the distance since he outpointed Han Guk Jung in the TFC 18 co-feature nearly four years ago.

5. Meritocracy has not yet benefitted him.

While One Championship lists Kim as its top-ranked competitor at 155 pounds, he was passed over for a title shot in favor of multiple-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion Garry Tonon. “The Lion Killer” will challenge Thanh Le for the featherweight crown at One Championship “Lights Out” on March 11, with the Kim-Tang winner perhaps surfacing as the next would-be suitor.