You can forgive Doo Ho Choi if he got a little bit caught up in the moment.
Shortly after he scored a second-round TKO of Bill Algeo at UFC on ESPN 60, Doo Ho Choi gave an emotional post-fight interview to Daniel Cormier in the Octagon on Saturday night.
“This win was a long time coming, and I’ve let a lot of people down. It’s been a while,” Choi said. “But I kept believing in myself. I knew I could do it tonight. I wanted to prove it to people who still believe in me.”
It was Choi’s first promotional triumph since a first-round knockout of Thiago Tavares at “The Ultimate Fighter 23” finale in July 2016. Once regarded as a prospect to watch, “The Korean Superboy” went winless in his next four bouts, though one of those was an all-time classic against Cub Swanson that was eventually inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.UFC 304: Edwards vs. Muhammad Saturday at 10 ET on ESPN+. Order Now!
During a post-fight media scrum, Choi explained what was going through his head in the immediate aftermath of his victory over Algeo.
“I got emotional because this win was 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, and the last time it didn’t go very well and I heard all the haters, all the people that said I’m done and 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 it? Am I really done?’ I kept faith in myself and I had to prove it to myself, and I proved it to myself tonight, so that’s why I’m emotional.”
Now 33 years old, Choi was able to maintain belief in his abilities through all the adversity.
“I know this is the one thing that I’m good at,” Choi said. “If I try my best and leave it all out there and if it doesn’t go my way, then I can accept that, maybe I don’t have it. I kept believing in myself and kept trying and I got it done.”
