New heavyweight headliner set for UFC Vegas 124 following Bonfim vs. Brady cancelation

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Johnny Walker
Johnny Walker | Jeff Bottari, Zuffa LLC

UFC Vegas 124 has a new main event.

MMA Fighting confirmed with sources with knowledge of the matchup that a heavyweight bout between Waldo Cortes-Acosta (17-4) and Johnny Walker (23-10, 1 NC) has been booked as the short-notice headliner for next Saturday’s event at Meta APEX.

It is unclear if Cortes-Acosta vs. Walker will be a five- or three-round fight given the late notice.

The news comes shortly after the originally scheduled welterweight main event between Gabriel Bonfim and Sean Brady was removed from the card due to Brady being forced to withdraw due to injury. Bonfim no longer fights on Nov. 7 and he will be booked for another card in the future.

Cortes-Acosta seeks to snap a two-fight skid following an 8-1 run that moved him into the heavyweight top 10. He has lost back-to-back decisions to Curtis Blaydes and Alexander Volkov, but holds recent knockout wins over Derrick Lewis, Shamil Gaziev, and Ante Delija.

A longtime light heavyweight contender, Walker made a successful move up a division this past October with a spectacular knee knockout over Mick Parkin at UFC 332.

In th UFC Vegas 124 co-main event, Tatiana Suarez and Virna Jandiroba meet in a clash of top strawweight contenders.

Guilherme Cruz and Mike Heck contributed to this report.