MMA News: Retired UFC Star Returns to the Cage in Netflix’s ‘Physical 100'

A UFC fighter is taking on a challenge of a lifetime.

Netflix

Longtime welterweight contender Dong Hyun Kim enters one of the toughest competitions today in Netflix’s all-new season of ‘Physical 100’, a Korean reality TV show that features 100 athletes in tip-top shape competing for a cash prize of ₩300 million (~$240,000).

Physical 100 isn’t your ordinary game show though as the participants enter a gauntlet of ‘quests’ using nothing but the strength of their bodies. Nothing is left to the imagination, as we saw in the first season, where the star-studded cast pushed a 1.5-ton ship to the finish line in one of the many demanding challenges.

The competitors come from all walks of life with several of them being MMA fighters, such as Hyun Kim. ‘Stun Gun’ retired from the sport in 2017 after a UFC loss to the then up-and-coming contender Colby Covington.

Unlike most MMA retirements nowadays, the 42-year-old Kim has stayed away from competition since then… that is, until now. The UFC welterweight was met with much awe upon his arrival as the 100th contestant in the series.

“Just because I appear on variety shows doesn’t mean I’m just a celebrity now,” Kim said on the show. “There is still a fighter’s blood running through my veins. I’m approaching this how I approach the UFC. I’m gonna think of this as my first real match in six years. Once they face off against me, they’re gonna realize why I have only lost four times.”

Kim fought the best of the best in his UFC run, including the likes of Tyron Woodley, Carlos Condit, Demian Maia. The Korean’s most high-profile win came over UFC superstar Nate Diaz in 2011. 

2014: Dong Hyun Kim v John Hathaway

They don’t call him Stun Gun for nothing.
What places it as the best KO of 2014 isn’t just the technique involved and the finality of the shot, but the sound. That’s a scary knockout, and in my eyes it’s clearly the best of 2014. 🇰🇷 pic.twitter.com/CnwCyy80vl

— Mixed Martial Aus 🇦🇺 (@MixedMartialAus) March 23, 2024

Kim steps into way too familiar territory early on in the competition: the Octagon. As part of the first quest, the 100 athletes must compete against each other in a 1v1 match to possess a ball by the time the final bell sounds.

There are three arenas for each match, with ‘Arena C’ being an MMA cage. It was the obvious choice for Kim, who got to pick the location as well as his opponent since he placed in the top 10 in the opening cardio challenge, running a total of 5,009m. 

“That one is second nature for me,” Kim said, upon seeing the cage.

Dong Hyun Kim picked a fitness model named Emmanuel, who put on quite the fight against the former UFC fighter. See the entire match for yourself below, courtesy of Netflix.

Surprisingly, ‘Stun Gun’ wasn’t the first UFC fighter to compete in Physical 100. In season 1 of the Netflix show, we saw Yoshihiro Akiyama, AKA ‘Sexyama’ run through the gauntlet of quests many years past his prime. 

“I wanted to prove that people in their 40s and 50s around the world, like me, can beat young people if they work hard,” Akiyama wrote of the experience on Instagram.

Seasons 1 & 2 are available to watch on Netflix, with newer episodes coming out on Apr. 2.

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