All 28 Make Weight at UFC Vegas 124 — and the Main Event Carries a 23-Pound Gap
“God had different plans than me. God has better plans for me.”
Waldo Cortes-Acosta weighed in at 262 pounds to Johnny Walker's 239, making official a short-notice heavyweight main event nine days in the making, while Tatiana Suarez and Virna Jandiroba hit the scales for a strawweight fight with a title shot on the line.
All 28 fighters made weight at Friday's official weigh-ins for UFC Vegas 124. No misses, no fines, no catchweights, no bout changes. The card is set for Saturday night at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas.
The main event is official, and it is lopsided on the scales. Waldo Cortes-Acosta, the No. 6 heavyweight, weighed in at 262 pounds. Johnny Walker came in at 239 — a 23-pound gap between the two men who will headline the night.
It is Cortes-Acosta's first UFC main event. The 35-year-old is 17-4 overall and 10-4 in the UFC, and he is riding a two-fight losing run after a three-fight win streak — unanimous decisions to Alexander Volkov at UFC 328 in May and to Curtis Blaydes this year. The former LFA heavyweight champion gets the five-round stage in the APEX.
Walker, 34, is 23-10 with one no-contest, 9-7 in the UFC. This is his second heavyweight fight, not his debut: he moved up from light heavyweight and knocked out Mick Parkin with a flying knee at 3:35 of the first round at UFC 332 on October 3, earning Performance of the Night. A win on Saturday would put him in the heavyweight top 10 in just his second appearance in the division.
The fight only exists because of a staph infection. The original main event — welterweight Gabriel Bonfim against Sean Brady — was scrapped when Brady's knee swelled after training on October 21. By that night he could barely walk; he spent three days in hospital, and the infection was confirmed as staph. Brady asked for a December date and was told the December 5 and December 12 cards were full; he now targets January 16 in Dallas.
Walker got the call from matchmaker Mick Maynard on Thursday, October 29 — the day Brady withdrew — and accepted immediately, nine days out. "Mick messaged me and offered me this fight and I said, 'Okay, let's do it. Why not?'"
He had wanted a slower climb. "I was thinking to take small steps and go slow in the division. That was my plan. God had different plans than me. God has better plans for me."
Walker knows the man across from him. "He's a very high-level fighter. Good boxing, good speed, good with the hands. It's a big test, and I pass through that, it's just gonna show that I belong to the heavyweight division." And he trains with the man who beat Cortes-Acosta last time out: "I train with the guy that beat him, Volkov, and I know how he beat him. Volkov almost knocked him down with one jab, so in this division, any punch can change the fight."
The co-main event carries the highest stakes on the card. Tatiana Suarez weighed in at 115.5 pounds; Virna Jandiroba hit the strawweight limit exactly at 116. Both are top-five strawweight contenders, and the winner is in line for a shot at champion Mackenzie Dern, likely in early 2027.
Suarez is 12-1 overall and 9-1 in the UFC. Her only loss was the title fight against Weili Zhang at UFC 312 in February 2025; since then she has beaten Amanda Lemos and Loopy Godinez. "We're at the top of the division other than Weili. So, I just feel like it makes sense that we're gonna be next in line for the belt."
Jandiroba is 23-4, 9-4 in the UFC, with 14 wins by submission. She lost a close decision to Dern at UFC 321 in a failed attempt at the vacant 115-pound belt, then bounced back with a decision win over Tabatha Ricci. "This is a very important fight. We're up there in the rankings, No. 2 and 3. So, we're looking for that title shot."
The matchup has been booked three times before and twice fell through on injury. On the third attempt, both women are on the scales and the fight is on.
The rest of the card weighed in clean. On the main card: Davey Grant (135.5) vs Elijah Smith (135.5) at bantamweight, Billy Elekana (206) vs Lucas Fernando (205) at light heavyweight, Priscila Cachoeira (136) vs Nina Milosevic (136) at bantamweight, and Mitch Raposo (125.5) vs Marcos Degli (126) at flyweight.
The prelims: Keiichiro Nakamura (145) vs Ollie Schmid (145.5), Gabriel Lorenço (234) vs Thomas Petersen (253.5), Karine Silva (125) vs Gabriella Fernandes (126), Jose Delano (145.5) vs Murtazali Magomedov (146), Austin Bashi (145.5) vs Carlos Calderon (145.5), Mantas Kondratavicius (186) vs Andre Petroski (185.5), Seokhyeon Ko (171) vs Wellington Turman (171), and Jonny Parsons (169.5) vs José Souza (171).
One prelim carries its own story. Calderon makes his UFC debut on four days' notice after Lucas Brennan pulled out of the Bashi fight with a torn ACL.
UFC Vegas 124 — also billed as UFC Fight Night 293 — runs 14 bouts on Saturday, November 7, live from the Meta APEX. The entire event streams on Paramount+, with the prelims at 5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT and the main card at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT. It opens a run of three consecutive UFC shows, one week before UFC 334 in New York.
The scales held no drama. The fights do the talking tomorrow.
