Johnny Walker Picks Up Wild Finish Over Waldo Cortes Acosta

Johnny Walker has picked up another win at heavyweight after winning last month by knockout against Mick Parkin. The Brazilian fighter won in the third round by knockout against Waldo Cortes Acosta at UFC Vegas 124 at the Meta Apex.

Walker and Cortes Acosta took the fight on short notice after the original main event between Sean Brady and Gabriel Bonfim was canceled due to an injury to Brady. The win for Walker will put him in the top 6 of the heavyweight division.

Wild Fight

Walker tried to tag Cortes Acosta early on with a couple of hard low kicks. The Dominican fighter tried to close the distance but had problems with the kicks from Walker. After two one-and-a-half minutes into the fight, Cortes Acosta went for broke and tagged Walker. Walker was out of balance but recovered quickly. Cortes Acosta didn’t block any of Walker’s low kicks, and his leg seemed compromised. Every time Cortes Acosta was able to close the distance, he tagged Walker with hard shots to the head.

Walker kept tagging the legs in the second round as well. Cortes Acosta was looking for the moment to land the knockout blow. Walker went wild with a spinning elbow and slipped to the ground. Cortes Acosta followed in his half guard, but nothing significant happened. In the third round, Walker landed a question mark kick out of nowhere. Followed by a backwards punch. Cortes Acosta was wobbly and got finished by a couple of hard punches. An amazing and very wild win by the Brazilian fighter.

Grappling

In the co-main event of the night, two former title challengers, Tatiana Suarez and Virna Jandiroba, fought each other in hopes of another shot at the strawweight title. Suarez initiated the grappling but struggled heavily to get Jandiroba to the ground, who also specializes in the ground game. After Jandiroba went for a takedown, Suarez was able to turn it around in the second round and control her.

At the end of the round, Jandiroba locked in a kneebar, but the round was over. In the final round, Suarez took Jandiroba to the ground with more than three minutes left. She controlled the Brazilian fighter there, but not much happened. With less than one-and-a-half minutes to go, Jandiroba almost took Suarez’s back, but Suarez rolled along and came out on top. After three rounds, Suarez won via unanimous decision.

Veteran vs. Youngster

Elijah Smith took on Davey Grant in a bantamweight match-up. Smith, the 24-year-old, was sixteen years younger than his opponent from England. Grant landed a hard shot earlier to the face of Grant but got countered by the American fighter.

Grant was wobbly, and Smith recognized the moment and unleashed punches on Grant. Grant went down and got brutally finished by knockout. An amazing win for Smith.

The Final Moment

In one of the best fights on the card, Jose Delano took on undefeated Murtazali Magomedov in the featherweight division. Delano fought a very strong fight with crisp striking and good combinations. Magomedov mixed in his grappling and had success early on. The longer the fight went, it seemed to be in favor of Delano, who had more output in the third round.

With one second left in the final round, Magomedov knocked Delano down with a solid punch. That punch was most likely the decider. All judges gave Magomedov the third round. The fighter from Kyrgyzstan remains undefeated.

Full Results: UFC Vegas 124

Main Card

• Johnny Walker def. Waldo Cortes Acosta via KO (punches) – R3, 2:27.
• Tatiana Suarez def. Virna Jandiroba via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
• Elijah Smith def. Davey Grant via KO (punch) – R1, 1:00.
• Lucas Fernando def. Billy Elekana via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
• Nina Milošević def. Priscila Cachoeira via TKO (punches) – R2, 3:40.
• Mitch Raposo def. Marcos Degli via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).

Preliminary Card

• Ollie Schmid def. Keiichiro Nakamura via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
• Thomas Petersen def. Gabriel Lorenço via TKO (punches) – R3, 4:47.
• Karine Silva def. Gabriella Fernandes via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
• Murtazali Magomedov def. Jose Delano via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
• Austin Bashi def. Carlos Calderon via submission (rear-naked choke) – R1, 1:07.
• Andre Petroski def. Mantas Kondratavičius via TKO (punches) – R2, 4:39.
• SeokHyeon Ko def. Wellington Turman via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).
• José Henrique Souza def. Jonny Parsons via KO (punch) – R1, 4:16.

Full bonuses were also announced after the fights. (later)

This article was originally published on HEAVY

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