Ham dances, strikes and wins her 1st UFC win
/Yonhap
By Nam Hyun-woo
Ham Seo-hee (15-6-0) became the first Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) winner from Korea in Korea, overcoming Courtney Casey (4-2-0) in a unanimous decision at the UFC Fight Night Seoul, Saturday.
During the strokeweight clash at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena in southern Seoul, Ham entertained the crowd, dancing to her titantron music as she entered the arena. After stepping into the Octagon, she fought Casey in a back-and-forth fight, but as both fighters finished the last round, Ham proved she deserved her first UFC win.
In the first round, Casey spun around the Octagon, throwing low-kicks at Ham, and the two fighters soon closed the distance between them and started fighting at close range.
While exchanging many one-two combinations with Casey, Casey held a slight edge at the beginning of the fight, but to the delight of the home crowd, Ham came back strong and took the fight to Casey.
In the second round, Ham was knocked down once after getting punched in the face, but got up right away and kept on fighting.
Casey was still landing accurate strikes and showed good control of her punches and kicks. Ham worked to overcome the American’s lanky reach, and had to endure more punches in doing so, but she handled the damage and kept on fighting.
In the third round, Ham caught fire, cornering Casey and striking her with spinning kicks and slamming the American with her knees. As the fight was coming to its end, it was obvious that both fighters were tiring, but Ham clearly dominated the last round right to the last.