Solovyev, Park Si-won to clash in main event

MMA prospects Pyeon Ye-jun, Choi Eun-seok also on card

Eunha, SinB and Umji, former members of K-pop girl group GFriend. [Road FC]
Eunha, SinB and Umji, former members of K-pop girl group GFriend. [Road FC]

Eunha, SinB and Umji — former members of popular K-pop girl group GFriend — will perform at an upcoming mixed martial arts event.

Road FC announced Friday that the trio will appear at Road FC 079, set for Nov. 1 at Jangchung Arena in Seoul.

The three artists rose to fame as GFriend members with hit songs including "Glass Bead," "Me Gustas Tu" and "Rough." They will now bring their act to the MMA arena for a meeting with combat sports fans.

This is not the first time Road FC has incorporated K-pop performances into its events. At Road FC 078, held at the same venue on Aug. 29, girl group Fifty Fifty and boy group Monsta X both performed.

At that event, Fifty Fifty took the stage inside the cage after the first half of bouts concluded, while Monsta X closed out the night. Road FC said it plans to continue blending K-pop and MMA into a sports-entertainment format.

Ticket sale announcement image for Road FC 079
Ticket sale announcement image for Road FC 079

The main event will pit Artur Solovyev (32), winner of the 2023 Road FC lightweight global tournament, against Park Si-won (24), the youngest lightweight champion in Road FC history, at a contracted weight of 72 kilograms. Solovyev is returning to competition after roughly two years away, and the matchup took more than two years to come together.

In the co-main event, Pyeon Ye-jun (19) will face China's Ayercilei (25) at a contracted weight of 59 kilograms — two kilograms above the flyweight limit of 57 kilograms — as he seeks a third straight win. Choi Eun-seok (20), a national team member for the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, will take on Japan's Haraguchi Shin (28). Park Seo-young (23) is matched against Japan's Wada Serina (24), and Lee Jae-hun (24) will face Sardor (21), a former member of Uzbekistan's youth national judo team.

Seo Deok-ho, the promoter behind the event, said the previous card marked the first time Road FC combined MMA with K-pop, and that the concept drew strong attention as a new form of sports-culture content. "This time as well, we have prepared an event where audiences can experience both the tension of the bouts and the excitement of a K-pop stage," he said.


yjc@heraldcorp.com