Johnny Walker Faces an Interesting Challenge Following His Brutal Knockout Over Waldo Cortes-Acosta
Johnny Walker has made the successful jump to the heavyweight division, securing two straight wins and performing like a top contender. Walker’s latest win over Waldo Cortes-Acosta has put him at eighth in the Meta UFC heavyweight rankings and given him an argument for a title shot with possibly one more win. However, with the Brazilian moving up the rankings, he now faces some challenges with his next potential matchups.
Walker entered UFC Vegas 124 as a slight underdog against Cortes-Acosta and, in classic Walker fashion, turned the fight into a chaotic clash. Cortes-Acosta had Walker on his heels most of the first round, displaying a difference in weight and strength. However, Walker never counted himself out of the fight and, in the third round, was able to hit Cortes-Acosta with devastating shots, including a question mark kick and a sneaky backfist.
Following his win, Walker moved up four spots in the 265lbs rankings and immediately raised questions about who his next matchup may be. The interesting challenge Walker faces is that his younger brother, Valter Walker, is ranked 11th in the Meta heavyweight rankings, and his training partner and UFC Vegas 124 cornerman Alexander Volkov is ranked second.
Walker was asked if he would fight his brother, but Walker quickly shot down the idea in his UFC Vegas 124 post-fight interview. He also revealed he has no interest in fighting Volkov in an interview. With Walker not wanting to fight two of the top-15, who does that leave as his next potential opponent?
Who will be Johnny Walker’s next opponent at heavyweight?
While Walker has no interest in a matchup with his brother or training partner, plenty of ranked heavyweights could still be great matchups for him. The entire top five in the rankings already has matchups, including Alex Pereira (#3) taking on Sergei Pavlovich (#4), and Josh Hokit (#5) challenging Ciryl Gane (Champion) for the title at UFC 334. Tom Aspinall remains sidelined as the number one contender, so who does that leave as an opponent for Walker?
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A potential matchup to move up the rankings would be Rizvan Kuniev, who is currently ranked sixth after his recent decision loss to Volkov at UFC 333. If they’re potential opponents, both Walker and Kuniev should have plenty of time to rest and get into a full training camp. Another interesting matchup for Walker would be Vitor Petrino, who has shown some amazing athleticism and abilities during his current four-fight winning streak.
Walker and Petrino would be a great stylistic matchup, but Petrino possesses both the speed and power at heavyweight to be able to match up with Walker. There does seem to be some entertaining and skillful matchups for Walker, and Gane has reflected this in his recent comments about the heavyweight division.
When asked about his next matchup, Walker did indicate he would like to rest and check out the results of Hokit vs. Gane for the UFC heavyweight gold. Walker’s potential matchup is probably far away, so there could be a lot of movement in the rankings, with most of the top-five matchups approaching quickly.
If Walker sits out for a little while, he could get a favorable matchup with a top-five opponent after all the smoke clears from the title fight and the Pereira vs. Pavlovich fight next month.
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