Chapter 16: Change (2)
The gym was located on the third floor.
I climbed the stairs of a building without an elevator, and when I opened the door and stepped inside, I could see the interior of the gym.
There was no one there.
Old equipment and a desolate atmosphere.
It was hard to believe this was the gym of a UFC champion.
‘Pathetic.’
It was just as I expected.
UFC Champion Jung Doo-chul.
He was the first South Korean to dominate the world of mixed martial arts, but despite his incredible achievements, he eventually plummeted to the bottom. The reason was the doping test conducted right after his third title defense. After knocking out the undefeated fighter Jose Carlos, Jung Doo-chul was found to have used a banned substance known as [steroid].
It caused an uproar.
The match was, of course, ruled a forfeit, and Jose Carlos, who had been the interim champion, ascended to the throne.
Jung Doo-chul did not make any excuses.
He accepted reality, and upon returning to South Korea, he faced a devastating reality.
[Jung Doo-chul caught using banned substances!]
[The entire nation of South Korea was deceived by Jung Doo-chul. We believed he was the world’s greatest talent representing South Korea, but it turned out his talent was derived from illegal, banned substances. Drugs like steroids act as cheat codes, drastically enhancing physical abilities. The UFC office expressed deep regret over Jung Doo-chul’s decision to resort to such measures.]
[Jung Doo-chul is the shame of South Korea.]
Overnight, the world changed.
All of South Korea turned against him.
In South Korea, drug use was an extremely sensitive issue, and as someone who had achieved great feats, Jung Doo-chul’s fall was even more severe. Thus, Jung Doo-chul became the disgrace of mixed martial arts. A man who could have lived off his fame was now running a small gym in the countryside for a reason.
‘There’s no excuse for what he did. But that doesn’t mean I deny his skills.’
I still remembered.
When Kim Hyunsung was deep into training to stand against school violence, Jung Doo-chul’s records were evaluated by some as talents too valuable to dismiss merely because of the doping scandal. It was believed that Jung Doo-chul likely began using drugs after entering the UFC. Before that, the skills he showcased in domestic organizations were extraordinary. Overwhelming opponents with his natural talent, Kim Hyunsung had countless thoughts of wanting to become strong like Jung Doo-chul.
However.
That alone wasn’t why he sought him out.
During the days he was lying in a vegetative state, a story about Jung Doo-chul came on TV.
[Kim Mu-yeol, who secured the first UFC title match since Jung Doo-chul, revealed that he was actually a disciple of Jung Doo-chul. Although he had previously hidden his mentor’s identity due to the doping scandal, he tearfully confessed he did not want to deny Jung Doo-chul’s existence.]
The Korean super rookie.
He was born through Jung Doo-chul.
Kim Mu-yeol spoke before the media about how excellent of a mentor Jung Doo-chul was, and that event made Kim Hyunsung decide to include Jung Doo-chul in his plan. A man who was not only the best fighter but also capable of nurturing great talent. If he could win Jung Doo-chul over, he judged that he could secure a solid foundation to grow stronger.
It was at that moment.
While I was looking around the gym, a man with a thick beard appeared.
“Hey there, are you here to sign up?”
The man smiled warmly.
Though the beard made him hard to recognize, he was unmistakably UFC champion Jung Doo-chul.
At this time, it was three years before Kim Mu-yeol’s discovery.
It was during the period when Jung Doo-chul was still living in ruin.
Kim Hyunsung spoke.
“Yes, I’m here to register.”
—
We moved to another place.
He shoved aside some clutter in a shabby office, and then, adopting the attitude of a typical businessman, Jung Doo-chul responded to Kim Hyunsung.
“At a glance, you look like a high school student. You came to the right place. If I may talk about our gym, whether it’s a professional debut, simple physical enhancement, dieting, whatever your goal is, I can teach you perfectly. The monthly membership fee is 150,000 won. It’s absolutely not expensive. I’m running a [personal training] one-on-one system here.”
He was friendly.
As far as Kim Hyunsung remembered, until just before Kim Mu-yeol succeeded in the UFC, Jung Doo-chul had gone through very difficult times.
His current state.
It was only natural.
No matter what his past was, Jung Doo-chul had to survive, and he could still smile warmly at a customer he hadn’t seen in a long time.
“So, what’s your reason for wanting to attend the gym?”
“I want to be good at fighting. Good enough to crush all the bullies.”
For a moment.
Jung Doo-chul’s expression hardened.
If you train in mixed martial arts, naturally you become good at fighting.
But mixed martial arts was still a sport, and students who sought it out simply to fight were a bit troublesome.
Jung Doo-chul spoke.
“The gym, you see, is not a place that encourages fighting. If your only reason for wanting to train is to get better at fighting, then I can’t help you. If you train a bit, the bullies won’t bother you anyway, so why not exercise simply for self-improvement?”
A typical answer.
A predictable response.
Kim Hyunsung didn’t answer immediately.
He quietly observed Jung Doo-chul trying to force a smile.
What he desired wasn’t the triumphant Jung Doo-chul who had overcome hardship, but the still desperate, fallen Jung Doo-chul.
Kim Hyunsung spoke.
“Why not? Director Jung, didn’t you also use any means necessary to get stronger when you were a fighter? Regardless of the reasons, isn’t my goal the same—to become stronger? What’s the problem?”
He prodded at the wound.
He touched the [reverse scale].
At Kim Hyunsung’s words, Jung Doo-chul could no longer maintain his smile.
—
Silence fell.
Without saying anything, Jung Doo-chul, looking at Kim Hyunsung who didn’t avoid his gaze, finally opened his mouth.
“That was a decision I made because I was foolish. If I could turn back time, I would never repeat that mistake.”
Before his UFC debut.
Just as people had evaluated, Jung Doo-chul possessed dazzling talent.
There was no one he couldn’t beat, and naturally, the UFC showed interest in signing him.
And on the day of his first match, Jung Doo-chul had to accept defeat with a battered face.
He had clearly dominated the match from beginning to end, but no matter how many clean hits he landed, his opponent wouldn’t fall. In the later rounds, he was overwhelmed. The opponent’s incredible endurance and unyielding stamina drained Jung Doo-chul’s energy, and the judges unanimously declared his defeat.
He accepted it.
He acknowledged his loss, but the words of the people around him pierced his ears.
“Looks like he juiced up.”
“Obviously. In the era of heavy doping, who doesn’t use?”
Back then.
The technology for doping tests was not advanced.
It was an era so rampant with doping that not using drugs was considered foolish, and as those insiders had predicted, the opponent who continued to rack up wins was eventually caught using banned substances and fell from grace. Jung Doo-chul did not want to become one of those people. He tried desperately to achieve results without using drugs, but after debuting in the UFC and suffering three consecutive losses, he found himself cornered.
“One more loss, and you’re out.”
Dismissal.
He would have to leave the UFC stage.
It was the dream stage that everyone, including himself, had yearned for, yet he was handed a one-sided notice to leave.
Jung Doo-chul believed in his own talent, but the athletes who used drugs performed at levels beyond common sense.
If it had been just him.
He might have given up on his dream.
But he had a wife and two children to support, and if he didn’t bring home the money, his family couldn’t survive. He agonized for a long time. The doping broker who had been approaching him even before his UFC debut—he stared at the contact information he had long resisted.
He knew how terrible a choice it was.
He had his pride as a fighter and wanted to stay honorable, but when he came to his senses, he was already knocking down his opponents with explosive muscles.
The Korean Monster.
A monster was born.
After that, Jung Doo-chul soared to the top, became a champion, and, as everyone knows, eventually fell after being caught for doping.
Jung Doo-chul spoke.
“I regret that choice every single day. If you try to become strong by any means necessary, you’ll end up like me, ruined. I was really stupid. If I had known just how bad the perception of doping was in South Korea, if I had known that running a gym and appearing on TV after retirement would be more profitable than grinding my body for fight money, I would have resisted that devil’s temptation. So I can’t accept you. If you seek strength to crush bullies, you might end up living out your life in some nameless prison, not in the glorious future you imagine.”
Creak.
He stood up from his seat.
He wanted to cling to this rare customer.
But he couldn’t bring himself to knowingly lead a kid, blinded by rage, down a path he knew was wrong.
He was about to send him away.
Until Kim Hyunsung said his final words.
“One hundred million won.”
“…What did you say?”
“If you accept my proposal, I’ll give you one hundred million won.”
—
Even jokes have their limits.
One hundred million won?
Kim Hyunsung’s words were absurd, but what followed tore apart any disbelief.
“It’s no loss to you, Director. If you promise to teach me, I’ll transfer the one hundred million won within a day. It’s prepaid, so there’s no reason you’d lose anything by accepting.”
His heart sank.
It began pounding wildly.
He should have refused.
He should have scoffed at the nonsense, but the moment he heard the amount, Jung Doo-chul couldn’t.
‘If it’s true…?’
A faint possibility.
Teaching a single high school student for one hundred million won.
At home, his two sons and wife were waiting. As his sons grew, the cost of raising them grew too, and his wife had started working to help make ends meet. Every time he came back to a cold, empty house, Jung Doo-chul drowned his uselessness in alcohol. Had he not doped, he wouldn’t have ended up like this—or if he was going to do it, he should have gotten help from a real, professional doping broker and avoided detection.
He lived steeped in regrets.
And now, someone was offering him one hundred million won.
How could he refuse?
Even if it was just a student’s prank, Jung Doo-chul couldn’t ignore the desperate light in Kim Hyunsung’s eyes.
Kim Hyunsung spoke.
“When you first used steroids, you must have fully considered the price you would pay—the side effects, the social stigma, being kicked out of the UFC. Reality was harsher than you imagined, but in the end, it was the result of your own choice. It’s the same for me. If I learn to fight from you and end up fighting bullies, maybe the worst will happen. Maybe I’ll end up crippled, or live my life bouncing between juvenile detention and prison. But I’ve come here willing to bear all of that. I have no intention of blaming you. Just like you were desperate enough to turn to drugs back then, I’m desperate for you now. Just look at that truth.”
Jung Doo-chul’s eyes wavered.
He was just a high schooler.
But what kind of story could he have, for his eyes to carry such venom at that age?
Kim Hyunsung knew that Jung Doo-chul could not refuse.
He had already once succumbed to temptation.
Jung Doo-chul would not overcome it.
Having calculated this, Kim Hyunsung secured a promise of one hundred million won from Go Chang-beom.
After a long silence, Jung Doo-chul spoke.
“…One thing’s certain. I will never let you use drugs. I got strong through illegal means, but I can’t allow a young student who can’t take responsibility for his life to follow that path. If I agree to teach you, it’ll strictly stay within the boundaries of ‘teaching.’”
“That’s fine.”
Jung Doo-chul clenched his teeth.
He irritably opened the office door and glanced at Kim Hyunsung.
“Then get in the ring. If you can survive even one round against me, I’ll recognize your resolve and accept your proposal.”
A fierce declaration.
It was Jung Doo-chul’s final shred of pride.
