Johnny Walker FLATTENS Cortes-Acosta, Then Silences the Chin Doubters

A question-mark kick, a back fist and a right hand — Walker erases two lost rounds in one minute and enters the heavyweight top ten.

"Fuck everybody who said I have no chin." Johnny Walker said it into Michael Bisping's microphone minutes after the finish, and the whole heavyweight division heard it. He had just taken the best shots of a heavyweight, clean, on his chin — and then he took the man's never-finished record with it.

Johnny Walker stopped Waldo Cortes-Acosta by TKO at 2:27 of round three in the UFC Vegas 124 main event on Saturday night at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas. The No. 6-ranked heavyweight had never been finished before. Walker is now 2-0 at heavyweight, and he has a top-ten case after two fights in the division.

Two rounds down, one kick from done

For two rounds, this looked like a bad idea. Cortes-Acosta walked Walker down behind a heavy right hand, and Walker spent most of the fight backing up. Walker hit the canvas in the first round and stumbled down again in the second, where Cortes-Acosta took top position and added ground and pound.

The scale had warned everyone. Cortes-Acosta weighed 262 pounds. Walker weighed 239. Twenty-three pounds of heavyweight sat behind every punch the Dominican threw, and Walker answered it by chopping at the lead leg and waiting for an opening that never seemed to come.

The minute that changed everything

It changed in the third. Referee Jason Herzog had just separated the two from a clinch when Cortes-Acosta stepped forward out of position. Walker threw a question-mark kick that caught him clean. A short back fist buckled his legs. A straight right hand put him on the canvas.

Walker landed one more brutal punch before Herzog rushed in. The official time: 2:27 of round three.

"This is not technique," Walker said afterward. "This is surprise motherfucker."

The chin question, answered

This was the point of the whole night for Walker. Four men had stopped him in the UFC — Corey Anderson, Jamahal Hill, Magomed Ankalaev, Volkan Oezdemir — and the chin questions followed him up to heavyweight. He took the fight to answer them.

"I just took the best shots of a heavyweight now, clean, on my fucking chin," he told Bisping. "Who don't have a chin now? I proved you that. Next time, I'm not gonna let them touch my chin. This was just to prove you."

He took the fight on nine days' notice, after Sean Brady's withdrawal broke up the original Bonfim–Brady main event. Five weeks earlier, he had knocked out Mick Parkin with a knee in the first round of his heavyweight debut at UFC 332. Two fights at heavyweight. Two finishes.

What it means now

Walker moves into the heavyweight top ten with his second straight finish in the division. He told Bisping he plans to be in New York next weekend with training partner Alexander Volkov to watch Ciryl Gane defend the heavyweight title against Josh Hokit at UFC 334.

Volkov cornered him on Saturday. Walker said at the post-fight press conference that Volkov deserves the next title shot after UFC 334. "It's his time now," Walker said. His own turn, he made clear, comes after his friend's.

For Cortes-Acosta, the loss is his third straight, after decision defeats to Alexander Volkov and Curtis Blaydes. His last win remains the second-round stoppage of Derrick Lewis. He had never been finished in 21 professional fights before Saturday night — and he still goes home with half of the Fight of the Night bonus.

The money

Walker and Cortes-Acosta shared Fight of the Night honors, $100,000 each. Elijah Smith and Thomas Petersen took Performance of the Night bonuses of $100,000 each. The UFC also paid $25,000 finish bonuses to Austin Bashi, Andre Petroski, Jose Souza and Nina Milosevic.

Two fights at heavyweight, two finishes, one chin question answered. The only question left is how high the Brazilian climbs before somebody makes him prove it all over again.