You can forgive Choi Du-ho if he gets a little carried away by the moment.
Fresh off his second-round TKO win over Bill Algeo at UFC on ESPN 60, Choi Doo-ho sat down with Daniel Cormier for an emotional post-fight interview in the Octagon on Saturday night.
“This win was a long time coming and I’ve disappointed a lot of people. It’s been a long time,” Choi said, “but I kept believing in myself. I knew I could win tonight and I wanted to prove it to the people who still believe in me.”
It was Choi’s first promotional win since his first-round knockout of Thiago Tavares in the finals of The Ultimate Fighter 23 in July 2016. Once considered a hot prospect, the “Korean Superboy” was winless in his next four bouts, including one classic bout against eventual UFC Hall of Famer Cub Swanson. UFC 304: Edwards vs. Muhammad airs Saturday at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+. Order now! During the post-fight media scrum, Choi explained what was going through his mind immediately following his win over Algeo.
“I’m overwhelmed with emotion because this win has been a long time coming,” Choi said through a translator (video via MMAjunkie.com). “It’s been a while. It’s been a while since I won, it didn’t go well last time, and I heard all the haters and people telling me it’s over, that I can’t do it anymore. It started to affect me. I started to doubt myself a little bit.”
“I was thinking, ‘Is this really over? Is it really over?’ I just had to keep believing in myself and prove it to myself, and tonight I proved it to myself. That’s why I’m emotional.”
Choi, now 33, has managed to maintain faith in his abilities despite all the adversity.
“I know this is one of the things I’m good at,” Choi said. “If I try my best and give it my all and it doesn’t work out, I can just accept it. Maybe I can’t do it. I just believed in myself and kept trying and I did it.”
