Hyun Woo Kim left ROAD FC 078 with championship gold, but behind the celebration was a fight in which he nearly lost belief in himself, carried the weight of his teammates’ defeats and overcame an opponent he openly admits he feared.
Hyun Woo Kim walked out of Jangchung Gymnasium as the new ROAD FC interim bantamweight champion after defeating Ji Yong Yang at ROAD FC 078.
The championship belt tells one version of the story.
ROAD FC’s newly released behind-the-scenes footage tells another.
Speaking after the biggest victory of his career, Kim opened up about the doubt he experienced during the fight, the pressure surrounding him before the main event and the people who helped carry him through it.
At one point, even Kim wasn’t sure he was going to make it.
KIM NEARLY LOST BELIEF
Kim admitted that his confidence began to waver as the fight progressed.
“I honestly almost lost heart in the middle of the fight”
Instead of allowing that doubt to take over, however, Kim decided to trust himself one more time.
He committed to another punch and found the opening he needed, dropping Yang and changing the course of the fight.
Minutes later, Kim had a championship belt around his waist.
Even backstage, the reality hadn’t completely registered.
“I still can’t believe I’m the champion,” Kim said.
HIS TEAM HAD ALREADY SUFFERED
Kim wasn’t only dealing with the pressure of a championship fight.
Several teammates who had prepared alongside him suffered defeats earlier in the event, leaving Kim as the final opportunity to change the direction of a difficult night for the team.
Asked whether those results increased the pressure before his own fight, Kim didn’t hesitate.
“Too much,” he admitted. “There was so much pressure.”
The losses could easily have become another burden for Kim to carry into the cage.
Instead, his teammates did the opposite.
Despite dealing with their own disappointment, they came to Kim before the main event and told him not to think about what had happened to them. Their night was over. His wasn’t.
Kim was left to walk into the biggest fight of his career carrying their support rather than their defeats.
A BELT THAT MEANT MORE
Once the fight was over, Kim’s attention quickly shifted toward the people who had helped him reach that moment.
His most emotional comments were reserved for his coach.
Kim explained that his coach already has other championship belts, but believed this one would carry a different significance.
The ROAD FC belt was one Kim had personally brought back to the team.
“I think this ROAD FC belt will mean the most to him,” Kim said.
Then came a much simpler message.
“Coach, I love you. Thank you so much.”
It was one of the moments that captured what ROAD FC’s cameras were able to show beyond the fight itself.
For Kim, becoming champion wasn’t solely the culmination of his own work. The belt represented the coaches and teammates who had gone through the process with him.
THE 6 A.M. MESSAGES
There was another source of support behind Kim’s championship run that viewers watching ROAD FC 078 would have known nothing about.
After the fight was booked, Kim said someone close to him began contacting him every morning at around 6 a.m.
The messages continued consistently throughout his preparation.
They were long messages filled with encouragement, prayers, positive thoughts and reminders of how many days remained until the fight.
Kim believes they made a difference.
He credited that constant support as one of the reasons he was able to get through the preparation and ultimately win the championship.
“YOU WERE SOMEONE I FEARED”
Perhaps the most revealing part of Kim’s post-fight comments came when he addressed Ji Yong Yang directly.
Kim had appeared composed in front of his opponent throughout the buildup.
Internally, things were different.
“Ji Yong hyung, I always acted like nothing was wrong when I was around you, but you were someone I feared,” Kim admitted.
Kim had wondered what would happen if Yang hurt him once they finally met inside the cage.
That fear never disappeared completely. Kim simply fought through it.
Afterward, rather than using his victory to diminish the man he had beaten, Kim acknowledged just how seriously he had regarded Yang as an opponent and thanked him for sharing the cage with him.
It adds another layer to Kim’s admission that his confidence nearly broke during the fight.
The new champion wasn’t walking through an opponent he believed he was destined to beat. He was fighting someone he genuinely feared while simultaneously trying to convince himself that he could still win.
Eventually, he did.
WHAT COMES NEXT?
The interim championship doesn’t completely settle ROAD FC’s bantamweight picture.
Soo Chul Kim remains on the other side of the equation, with an eventual title unification fight expected to determine the division’s undisputed champion.
Hyun Woo Kim isn’t rushing toward it.
After everything required to reach this point, the new interim champion said he would prefer to spend the remainder of the year recovering and enjoying what he accomplished.
He suggested that both men should be fully prepared before they eventually meet rather than forcing the championship fight too quickly.
For now, there is a championship to enjoy.
The official result from ROAD FC 078 will remember Hyun Woo Kim as the winner and new interim bantamweight champion.
The footage from behind the curtain shows what that result can’t.
There was fear. There was pressure. There was a moment when Kim’s belief nearly disappeared. There were teammates who had already lost, a coach he desperately wanted to make proud and messages arriving every morning from someone who believed in him.
Then Kim chose to believe one more time.
And when ROAD FC 078 was over, he had the belt to prove it.
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