Loma Lookboonmee is training hard ahead of her UFC return. The Thai strawweight is scheduled to fight Elise Reed in Seoul on February 4th.
There was some speculation that the entire event would be cancelled after the Korean Zombie suffered a shoulder injury during training. Chan Sung Jung had been penciled in to headline the card but is now facing an extended spell on the sidelines.
The UFC has not officially confirmed the event and it was noticeable by its absence when the promotion announced the schedule for early 2023. But Loma is training hard for her fight with Reed and has been working out with George Hickman at Bang Tao Muay Thai in Phuket:
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Better place
As far as the fighters are concerned UFC Korea is clearly going ahead. Loma will be looking to make it back to back wins and to potentially work her way into the top 15 at 115lbs.
After the win over Denise Gomes at UFC Vegas 60 she opened up about the mental health issues which she had been struggling with. Loma received a lot of praise from fans for being so open about the issue.
Hopefully the 26 year old is in a better place now as she is coming off a win and signed a new UFC deal earlier this year. She has fought six times since signing for the promotion in 2019, winning four of those fights.
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Local fighters
Loma has been training with Thai mixed martial artists Topnoi Kiwram and Pongsiri Mitsatit. The former has fought for Road to UFC and Rizin while the latter has competed for ONE Championship.
Topnoi competes at flyweight while Pongsiri is a strawweight meaning that Loma does not have to look far to find suitable sized sparring partners. She has also spent time training with reigning UFC 115lbs champion Weili Zhang.
Loma was one of the first fighters to move to Bang Tao Muay Thai from Tiger Muay Thai when the camp opened its doors earlier this year. It has been extremely successful with the likes of Jiri Prochazka, Weili Zhang and Alex Volkanovski all training or teaching there.
