The UFC 187 card scheduled for the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on May 23 has added a welterweight battle between Korea’s Dong Hyun Kim and American Josh Burkman. The match pits two very talented welters who are looking to establish a foothold in the UFC, as both are coming off adversity in their last outings.
Burkman had a 10-fight UFC career that ended with a loss to Pete Sell in October of 2008. Before returning to the UFC he went 9-2 and became one of the standouts in the World Series of Fighting organization’s roster. Though he failed in a WSOF title bid against Steve Carl, his good body of work included an erasure of Jon Fitch, a former UFC contender who was considered close to a top 10 fighter at the time, and he earned a return gig with the UFC. He returned to face the tough Hector Lombard, and lost a unanimous decision. He could really use a win to avoid going 0-2 in this most recent UFC run.
Kim has had a bizarre UFC run. He has an overall 10-3-1 record with the UFC, and he owns several impressive performances and at one time was riding a four-fight winning streak. In his last outing, against Tyrone Woodley, he was stopped in roughly one minute. That match should have been against Hector Lombard and a win could have put him in the title picture, instead he got caught and KO’d as he tried to replicate the KO elbow he had used the prior fight. By the time this fight is here, Kim will have been away from the octagon for more than eight months, and that is a long layoff.
Kim came out for the Woodley fight talking about tapping a “newfound aggression”. He knows he has to have an impressive showing if he wants to get back in the title hunt. at one point, he was one win away from a title shot, and it will take a lot more than that now for him to be back talking about a title shot. In Burkman he faces an extremely savvy fighter who will probably come into this fight as the underdog, and he will love it.
