Yoo Su-young eyes third UFC win against unbeaten Canadian prospect

South Korean fighter Yoo Su-young, nicknamed "Yoojitsu," will travel to Canada in pursuit of his third UFC victory.

Yoo takes on Cody Kobanchek (28, Canada) in the opening bout of UFC Fight Night: Buckley vs. Mallott at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, on Sunday (Korean Standard Time).

A bantamweight champion in season three of the Road to UFC, Yoo carries a 16-4-2 professional record. He won his first two UFC bouts before suffering a second-round rear-naked choke loss to Elijah Smith in March, snapping his winning streak.

Returning after roughly seven months away, Yoo reflected on the defeat. "It was disappointing to lose, but I drew strength from showing what I could do in the first round — including takedowns," he said. "I thought I needed to focus more during the fight."

He added that he intends to put lessons from that loss on display. "I want to show what I've learned and thought about since that fight," Yoo said. "I'll dominate my opponent in both striking and grappling."

His opponent, Kobanchek, is an unbeaten prospect with a 9-0 record. The Edmonton-based fighter held the bantamweight title at Unified MMA and earned his UFC contract with a third-round KO victory on Dana White's Contender Series in September last year.

Making his UFC debut, Kobanchek has finished four of his nine wins by knockout and two by submission. His striking, rooted in kickboxing and Muay Thai, is his primary weapon.

"I'm confident in my skills. I'm going to knock Yoo out this weekend," Kobanchek said. "I've wrestled my whole life, so I'm confident in my grappling too."

Yoo was unfazed. "He's a strong fighter — I'm going into his home country and he's undefeated," he said. "But there's nothing particularly threatening or worrying about him." He added that a win would put him in the UFC bantamweight top 15.

The main event features a welterweight clash between No. 10-ranked Joaquin Buckley (32, United States) and No. 13-ranked Mike Mallott (34, Canada).

Buckley won six straight bouts after moving to welterweight but has dropped his last two, losing to Kamaru Usman and Sean Brady. Mallott, meanwhile, has strung together four consecutive wins and is pushing for a spot in the upper rankings.

Buckley will look to his powerful striking to end the skid, while Mallott aims to use the home crowd as fuel for a run into the top 10.

The event will be broadcast live on tvN Sports and Tving starting at 6 a.m. Sunday.