Ji “Firefist”Yeon Kim

Ji Yeon Kim is a South Korean mixed martial artist currently signed to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Born on April 24, 1986 in Seoul, South Korea, she began her martial arts training at the early age of five. She primarily practices Taekwondo and Hapkido but also has solid foundations in Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.

Prior to signing with UFC in 2014, Kim was already an accomplished MMA fighter outside of the promotion. In 2007, she made her professional MMA debut against Mika Harigai at Spirit MC 8: Hero’s Lament. Throughout her career up until 2013, she competed mainly in Road FC (Korean), DEEP JEWELS (Japanese), Star FC (China) and Jewels promotions where she faced opponents such as Kana Watanabe, Shizuka Sugiyama and Sadae Numata among others. By 2013 Ji Yeon had built a record of 6 wins & 1 loss with 5 of those wins coming by way submission demonstrating her prowess as a grappler which would later prove useful for her transition into UFC’s women’s bantamweight division when it added additional weight classes for female fighters in February 2014.

Ji Yeon made her highly anticipated UFC debut on November 15th 2014 against Germaine de Randamie at The Ultimate Fighter: Team Edgar vs Team Penn Finale where she lost via unanimous decision after three rounds despite having superior grappling skills throughout the bout . Despite this setback , Ji Yeon remained determined and went on to win two out of four more fights within the organization including victories over Milana Dudieva and Veronica Macedo while losing ones against Leslie Smith & Talita Bernardo respectively before taking an extended break from competing between 2016–2018 due to undisclosed personal reasons leaving many fans wondering what happened during that period .
In May 2019 , 18 months after announcing retirement from MMA due to lack of motivation , Ji Yeon returned back into octagon for ?the first time since June 2016 ?at UFC Fight Night 152 where she faced Melinda Fabian but unfortunately got defeated via split decision . Not one to be deterred however , Kim bounced back quickly afterwards by winning victories over Nadia Kassem & Wu Yanan respectively this past year solidifying herself once again as top contender within women’s bantamweight division pending next fight schedule 2020 onwards …