Mexican-American Juan Moreno, 52, is the taekwondo teacher of UFC female fighter Veronica Hardy, 28, of Venezuela, the world's largest mixed martial arts organization.

Before her marriage, Hardy was known as "Veronica Macedo" and lived in the United States from ages 5 to 15. Juan Moreno was a world-class athlete in the early days of taekwondo's internationalization, winning back-to-back silver medals at the 1988 24th Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea and 1992 25th Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.

After retiring from active competition, Juan Moreno coached Team USA at the 2002 World Cup, 2002 World Youth Championships, and 2005 World Championships. He could not have been a better coach for Veronica Macedo, with whom he shares Spanish-speaking ancestry.

UFC on ESPN 52 takes place on Dec. 3 at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas (15,000 capacity). Veronica Hardy will take on Jamie Lynn Hott (33-Canada) in a women's flyweight (-57 kg) bout.

In a pre-fight video interview with MK Sports for UFC on ESPN 52, Hardy revealed that she first competed in South Korea as "Veronica Macedo" at the 8th Korea Open International Taekwondo Tournament in 2011, and it was her last time to date.

South Korea is the country where taekwondo master Juan Moreno stood on the Olympic podium. Veronica Macedo's 8th Korea Open was the largest in the tournament's history, with 2,900 competitors from 45 countries, a record that has yet to be broken.

Describing the food as "really spicy compared to what I'm used to," she was very specific about her impressions and memories of Korea, including the "well-maintained road system, so many apartments, and food miniatures that I've never seen before."

Korean restaurants that advertise their menus with models rather than actual food was something the 16-year-old had never seen before in her life. 토토사이트

After becoming a mixed martial arts fighter, she was able to continue her ties to Korea through TFC Seoul in September 2016 and UFC Busan in December 2019, but both events were canceled.

Veronica Hardy said, "I loved my first visit and knew I wanted to experience it again one day, but I'm so sad that it still hasn't happened. "I'd love to be a part of the next UFC Korea, and maybe my husband and I can go just to hang out. Korea is such an amazing country."

Dan Hardy (41-UK), who married late last year, went 6-4 in the UFC from 2008-2012, including a welterweight (-77 kg) title shot. Since retiring, he has appeared as a mixed martial arts analyst on Fox Sports, Sky Sports, and ESPN.

Dan Hardy also served as the English-language play-by-play announcer and on-site interviewer for the UFC's Busan event, where Veronica Macedo fought. He was one of the pundits who first coined the phrase "KZ (Korean Zombie) 2.0" to describe featherweight (-66 kilograms) Chan Sung Jung's (36) second prime when he went 3-1 from 2017-2019. Veronica Hardy says of her training as a macedo, "It's the most amazing kicking martial art in the world that I learned from a really good coach. The speed, hip rotation, and flexibility of the kicks are incredible. It's a respectful and appreciative sport that I still love a lot," he says.

"The taekwondo demonstrators I witnessed as a child were heroes to me. I thought they must have super powers." -Veronica Hardy