Johnny Walker finished Waldo Cortes Acosta with a third-round knockout at 2:27 in the UFC Vegas 124 main event, moving to 2-0 at heavyweight in the UFC. Walker landed an explosive combination of punches that left Cortes Acosta unable to continue. Walker had leaned on leg kicks through the first two rounds while Cortes Acosta pressed forward with heavy punches and had him down briefly in round one.
Johnny Walker closed out the UFC Vegas 124 main event with a third-round knockout of Waldo Cortes Acosta, ending the fight at 2:27 of round three. The finish moves Walker to 2-0 at heavyweight in the UFC, as first reported by MMA Fighting.
Walker threw an explosive combination of punches that left Cortes Acosta unable to continue. The ending came after a fight that did not look one-sided early. Walker leaned on leg kicks through the first two rounds, while Cortes Acosta pressed forward with heavy punches and had him down briefly in round one.
Walker, 34, now stands at 23-10-0. The Brazilian, who trains with SBG Ireland, has now won two straight, following a first-round KO/TKO of Mick Parkin at UFC 332 on October 3. That means he turned around in just over five weeks. Before that, he dropped a split decision to Dominick Reyes at UFC 327 in April. At six-foot-six with a 82-inch reach, Walker lands 3.98 significant strikes per minute at 55 percent accuracy.
Cortes Acosta, 35, falls to 17-4-0 and entered as the sixth-ranked heavyweight. The American, who fights out of Ultimate Kombat Fitness, had lost back-to-back unanimous decisions, to Alexander Volkov in May and Curtis Blaydes in September, and this defeat extends that skid to three. His most recent recorded win was a second-round KO/TKO of Derrick Lewis in January. He stands six-foot-four with a 78-inch reach and carries the higher output of the two, landing 5.03 significant strikes per minute at 47 percent accuracy.
Why it matters
- Walker has finished his last two recorded wins by KO/TKO, one in round one and one in round three.
- Cortes Acosta's output edge, 5.03 strikes per minute against Walker's 3.98, did not translate into a result, with Walker landing the sharper shots.
- Walker held a four-inch reach advantage, 82 inches to 78, and used it on the leg kicks that defined the first two rounds.
- For Cortes Acosta, the loss is a third straight and a setback for his place in the heavyweight rankings.
Walker's stand-up game has now produced finishes in consecutive appearances, while Cortes Acosta's pressure approach, effective against Lewis, has not delivered a win since January.
