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UFC Vegas 124 Features New Heavyweight Main Event
Amir Azimi
Daily News

UFC Vegas 124 Features New Heavyweight Main Event

New Headliner Set for UFC Vegas 124

Following Sean Brady's injury withdrawal from his scheduled fight against Gabriel Bonfim, the UFC quickly arranged a new main event for UFC Vegas 124 on November 7. The heavyweight bout now features Waldo Cortes-Acosta facing off against Johnny Walker.

Multiple insiders have confirmed this matchup to Heavy.com after an initial report by Brazilian MMA journalist Laerte Viana. Currently, Cortes-Acosta holds the number six spot in UFC Media rankings and eighth in UFC Meta rankings. His opponent, Walker, is ranked twelfth in the Meta rankings.

Waldo Cortes-Acosta's Journey

Cortes-Acosta, hailing from the Dominican Republic, joined the UFC in 2022 through the Contender Series. Although he was viewed as a future top-10 heavyweight, he stumbled in his third UFC fight, losing by unanimous decision to Marcos Rogério de Lima. This loss cooled some of the early excitement around him.

Still, Cortes-Acosta bounced back with five consecutive wins, including victories over Serghei Spivac and Ryan Spann. That streak earned him a fight against the highly ranked Sergei Pavlovich, who defeated him via unanimous decision last August.

After that, Cortes-Acosta went on an impressive run, finishing Ante Delija, Shamil Gaziev, and Derrick Lewis within 90 days. This success led to a bout against top contender Alexander Volkov earlier this year, where Volkov won after three rounds. More recently, Cortes-Acosta suffered a lackluster loss to Curtis Blaydes. Facing Johnny Walker, he aims to end his two-fight losing streak.

Johnny Walker’s Move to Heavyweight

Walker, known for his previous light-heavyweight career from 2018 to 2026, is looking to climb into the heavyweight top 8 with this fight. Once hailed as the next big star and a threat to Jon Jones, Walker had a strong start with three first-round UFC wins but then hit a rough patch, winning just one of his next five bouts.

He recovered somewhat with a three-fight winning streak between 2022 and 2023 but then suffered knockout losses to Magomed Ankalaev and Volkan Oezdemir in 2024. After a comeback win over Zhang Mingyang, Walker discussed moving up to heavyweight but remained at light-heavyweight to face Dominick Reyes, losing by split decision.

This year, Walker officially shifted to heavyweight, knocking out Mick Parkin in the first round earlier in November. Now, with the fight against Cortes-Acosta set, a victory could push him into the division's top eight.

UFC Vegas 124 Fight Card – November 7, Las Vegas

Main Card

  • Waldo Cortes-Acosta vs. Johnny Walker
  • Tatiana Suarez vs. Virna Jandiroba
  • Davey Grant vs. Elijah Smith
  • SeokHyeon Ko vs. Wellington Turman
  • Mantas Kondratavičius vs. Andre Petroski
  • Billy Elekana vs. Lucas Fernando

Preliminary Card

  • Gabriel Lorenço vs. Thomas Petersen
  • Karine Silva vs. Gabriella Fernandes
  • Mitch Raposo vs. Marcos Degli
  • José Delano vs. Murtazali Magomedov
  • Keiichiro Nakamura vs. Ollie Schmid
  • Austin Bashi vs. Lucas Brennan
  • Priscila Cachoeira vs. Nina Milošević
  • Jonny Parsons vs. José Henrique Souza

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