Road FC welterweight champion Tae Young Yoon is preparing for a very different challenge as he adapts his striking based game to the Traditional MMA ruleset ahead of the 2026 Aichi Nagoya Asian Games.
For Tae Young Yoon, earning a place on South Korea’s national team was only the first step.
The reigning Road FC welterweight champion is now preparing for a challenge unlike anything he has experienced inside a professional MMA cage. At the 2026 Aichi Nagoya Asian Games, he will compete under the Traditional MMA ruleset, a format that introduces a gi, places greater emphasis on grappling, and rewards a very different style of fighting.
While Yoon has built his reputation as one of Korea’s premier strikers, his coaches believe success at the Asian Games will depend on how quickly he can adapt.
“We know our athletes are strong strikers,” the coaching staff explained during training. “Now we have to prepare them for the rules they’ll actually compete under.”
Unlike professional MMA, Traditional MMA features short ground exchanges and allows gripping the gi, changing the rhythm of every fight. Instead of spending months learning intricate jiu jitsu systems, the team’s goal is far more practical.
The focus is on escaping bad positions quickly, defending submissions, creating scrambles, and returning to striking before the limited ground time expires.
A Champion Learning Something New
To prepare for the tournament, Yoon and the Korean national team recently trained at Korean Zombie MMA, where they received technical instruction from Chan Sung Jung and his coaching staff.
The session focused almost entirely on grappling situations expected under the Asian Games rules.
Rather than encouraging elaborate guard attacks, coaches emphasized efficiency.
When fatigue sets in, athletes fall back on their habits. The objective is to build reliable reactions that work under pressure, allowing competitors to defend, escape, and immediately transition back to offense.
For Yoon, that means refining parts of his game that are rarely the focus during a Road FC training camp.
“I’ve been training a lot more jiu jitsu,” Yoon said. “I want to make the most of the rules and compete with confidence.”
The Weight Cut Begins
The technical adjustments are only part of the challenge.
According to the coaching staff, Yoon currently weighs more than 90 kilograms and has roughly three months to reach his competition weight.
The coaches believe the cut is achievable because Yoon has previously competed at much lighter weights. Even so, they emphasized that maintaining his conditioning throughout the process will be just as important as reaching the target on the scale.
Unlike a typical professional fight, the Asian Games tournament requires athletes to perform over multiple days, making recovery and energy management critical.
Building a National Team
The video also highlighted the growing support around Korea’s MMA national team.
Professional fighter Seung Mu Chun has volunteered as a training partner, traveling to Seoul and covering his own expenses simply to help the team prepare.
The coaching staff praised his commitment, saying the experience will benefit both the national team and Chun himself.
That sense of unity extended to the training sessions at Korean Zombie MMA, where fighters and coaches from different gyms worked together with one objective: giving South Korea its best chance to win medals when MMA makes its Asian Games debut.
More Than a Champion
Tae Young Yoon has already proven he can become a champion under professional rules.
Now he faces an entirely different test.
The Asian Games will demand technical adjustments, disciplined weight management, and the ability to perform under an unfamiliar ruleset on one of the biggest stages in amateur MMA.
Winning a Road FC title established Yoon as one of Korea’s best professional fighters.
Winning a medal at the Asian Games would place him in a different conversation altogether.
Full video of source video, courtesy of A Sol Kwon’s Youtube channel.
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