DA WOONJUNG

In 2012, the year he turned 19, he served at a General Outpost (GOP) in Cheorwon during his military service. In 2013, while still serving, he watched the UFC fight between Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson and got hooked on fighting. In 2014, right after his discharge, he signed up at a gym in Daegu and began training. The year he turned 22, three months after starting at Korean Top Team, he beat Lee Hyeong-cheol by first-round KO in his TFC debut. He then lost twice in a row at TFC, in August and October.

In 2016 he knocked out Lucas Tani at Heat 37 in Japan and moved down to light heavyweight. He beat Gong Han-dong at Art of War in China and Shunsuke Inoue at Heat in Japan, staying unbeaten after the move.

In 2017 he beat Lee Hyun-soo, an older fighter from Daegu, at TFC Dream 2 and Ryo Sakai at TFC 15 for five straight wins. In 2018 he beat Lucas Rota by second-round ground-and-pound TKO at Heat 43 in Japan and became Heat light heavyweight champion.

The breakthrough yearIn January 2019 he beat the unbeaten Russian Abutalip Khalilov by elbow TKO in Taiwan, his ninth straight win and the best record in Asia at light heavyweight. In April he signed with the UFC together with Jun Yong Park. On Aug. 31 in Shenzhen, China, he debuted as the first Korean light heavyweight in the UFC and beat Khadis Ibragimov by third-round guillotine choke. The year he turned 26, on Dec. 21 in Busan, he beat Mike Rodriguez by KO in 1:04 of the first round. SPOTV News described the fight as the birth of a new star.

In 2020 he drew with Sam Alvey after three rounds at UFC 254. In April 2021 he beat William Knight by 3-0 decision, and in November he beat Kennedy Nzechukwu by first-round KO, bringing his UFC record to four wins and a draw.

In 2022 he lost to Dustin Jacoby by first-round KO, his first UFC defeat. In 2023 he lost in succession to Devin Clark by three-round decision and to Carlos Ulberg by rear-naked choke. In 2024 he lost to Oumar Sy by 0-3 decision in Paris, his fourth straight UFC loss, and his UFC contract was terminated that year.

In 2025 he appeared on tvN’s I Am Boxer and faced Myung Hyun-man, a former kickboxing heavyweight champion, but lost on a strike to the side of the head. In 2026 he moved up to heavyweight for TFC 22, his first fight in Korea in seven years, but lost to Mickaël Groguhe by third-round ground-and-pound TKO.

Da Woon Jung (born Dec 7, 1993) began his MMA career in 2015, the year he turned 22, by beating Lee Hyeong-cheol in his TFC debut, and became known on Dec 21, 2019, the year he turned 26, when he knocked out Mike Rodriguez at UFC Busan. He then went unbeaten in the UFC with four wins and a draw, but lost in succession to Jacoby, Clark, Ulberg and Sy from 2022 and left the UFC in 2024.

Ages are by calendar year (the year minus the birth year), birthdays aside.