Park Dae-Sung says “I would like to beat up Kwon A-Sol”

Park Dae-Sung (4-1-0-1, Team MOB, Korea) will face Rodrigo Caporal in the International Trials for the ROAD FC $1 Million Lightweight Tournament on February 11, 2017. Ahead of the match, he shared his thoughts on the magnitude of the Tournament, and his opinions on both his opponent and champ Kwon A-Sol.

Park Dae-Sung is just 23-years old yet has quickly become one of the hottest prospects in South Korea. After a successful bid in the ROAD FC amateur Into League in 2013, he went pro and immediately faced much more experienced opponents. However, in just one year, Park turned it around and won three in a row before taking his mandatory military duty quite young.

Park's return after two years paired him with fellow superrookie Kim Kyung-Pyo at ROAD FC 035. He earned the split decision in what became a fight of the year contender. Park has methodically put in the work to become a well-rounded and dangerous fighter with a huge gas tank. Now he face a monumental opportunity in the International Trials for the ROAD FC $1 Million Tournament.

After 2 years away in the military, Park could have been forgiven for a lacklustre performance, yet his comeback was much better than anyone expected, including himself,

“I fought a lot smarter than I did before the military. Originally my wrestling was strong, but I now have to supplement it a lot more. It wasn't hard to return, I just had to be a little more careful. I was able to get right back into it in just the first round.”

Park's last fight with Kim Kyung-Pyo made fans and the lightweight division take notice. He shared,

“After my last fight, I took only a week off to rest and think about it. But I resumed practice very quickly. This time I'm going to be prepared and win.”

Park's next opponent will put him back in deep waters against a more experienced fighter. Still, “Crazy Dog” is madly confident and says of Caporal, a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt,

“There's not much to analyze. Sure, he's a Brazilian jiu jitsu master from Brazil, but jiu jitsu and MMA are not the same. His jiu jitsu is strong, so I won't use jiu jitsu, I'll just knock him out. Of course I do have to be careful of his grappling, but I'm more aggressive in wrestling, so I will be able to use tackles.”

To Park, the opportunity to participate in the Trials is a dream come true. However he's both realistic and characteristically contrary when he talks about it,

“My childhood dream was to fight in the UFC. But my dream is being realized in ROAD FC. There are many high level fighters coming to this tournament, so I think that ROAD FC is no different than UFC or Bellator. Except for Kwon A-Sol. It's ridiculous. All the other fighters in the qualifiers are better than him. I might win a few really hard matches, but in the end Kwon is still the King. There will be some difficult matches, because there are a lot of strong players, so I really don't know where I'm going to end up. Actually I would like to beat up Kwon A-Sol one day.”

Park's sentiments are quite strong, and he shares that it's focused on more than the ROAD FC champ,

“I don't like the guys on Team Gangnam. Kim Jae-Hoon wants to beat me up. If I fall out of the tournament then I would like to move to Openweight and fight Kim Jae-Hoon, I really don't like him. Hong Young-Ki is also in the tournament but he should go back to the countryside and play Taekwondo. Considering the status of ROAD FC now, Kim Jae-Hoon and Hong Young-Ki should be sent back to the amateur Central League. I guess I'll have to clean out their team.”

Asking Park to say a few words to his fans is a double-edged sword. His bravado has earned him some haters, and man-handling a ROAD Girl after his last win also hurt his image. Even with his wild persona, Park is still humble and honest, and he admits his difficulties,

“It's really hard to think about preparing for this match. I suffered injuries both physical and mental from all that happened in that fight. So even if you want to swear at me, I will be happy to hear from you.”