Former Deep Jewels champion Seo Hee Ham picked up her first UFC victory in her home country tonight at UFC Fight Night 79: “Henderson vs Masvidal” in Seoul, South Korea. The standout striker edged out Cortney “Cast Iron” Casey on the feet in a closely-contested strawweight matchup.
Casey got off to a solid start in the opening round after backing Ham up with a head kick and punches, but Ham stood her ground and rallied back with crisp striking throughout the final ten minutes. Casey slowed down in round three and Ham walked away with a well-deserved win on the scorecards.
Ham (16-6-0) landed a left cross in the opening seconds and avoided a rushing flurry of punches from Casey (4-3-0). Both women landed one-twos and hard combinations in close. Ham scored with crisp left hands, but Casey backed her up with a head kick and a flurry. Ham recovered quickly and she fired off a series of punches in return, and more big power punches were exchanged before the bell.
Ham kept Casey on the defensive with single punches and leg kicks in round two until Casey knocked her down for a split second with a counter right hook. Action resumed after an inadvertent eye poke and Ham connected with one-two combos. She flurried with punches and backed Casey up once again. Another break was called for when Casey was kicked low, but the fight continued and Ham chased Casey down with big shots late in the round.
The fighters traded punches early in the final round and Ham stunned Casey with a left cross and a body kick. More power punches were exchanged and Ham landed hooks and body kicks. She kept the pressure on with punch-kick combos and a spinning backfist as Casey began to slow down. Ham attempted a takedown, then targeted Casey’s liver with more kicks, and the entertaining bout ended with both women landing heavy punches.
Ham’s superior striking in rounds two and three was enough to propel her to victory and she has now won 13 of her past 16 fights. Despite giving up a size and strength advantage to Casey, Ham put forth an excellent showing in victory tonight.
Winner: Seo Hee Ham by Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) after three rounds. She improves to 16-6-0.
(Photo Credit: UFC)
Really great, exciting fight. Seo Hee Ham is tough as nails to have come back from that first round head butt and second round knock down to beat a very strong and resilient Casey. Both Performance Bonuses were most deserved. And any talk of the UFC 115lb division being shallow is plainly ridiculous — that neither of these fighters being ranked in the top 15 shows just how deep and competitive this excellent division is.
And I believe a new 125lb women’s division that Dana spoke of recently would be just as stacked and entertaining as the 115lb now is. With Holm’s defeat of Rousey blowing the women’s 135lb division wide open, it looks like this is the best time ever for women’s MMA.