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Johnny Walker spoiled the homecoming get together for Zhang Mingyang simply because it was getting began early Saturday.
Headlining the primary UFC occasion in China his six years, Walker ended a skid of two straight knockout losses by scoring a stunning knockout of his personal in a comeback in opposition to the Chinese language gentle heavyweight in the principle occasion of UFC Combat Night time in Shanghai.
The 33-year-old Brazilian’s second-round TKO ended a 12-fight profitable streak by Zhang, who had not dropped an MMA bout since 2019 and had not even seen a second spherical since 2018.
Zhang was absolutely in management all through Spherical 1, touchdown some heavy pictures and placing Walker on retreat. However Walker made it to the horn and got here out for the second spherical with a unique plan of assault: kicks to the calf. He landed a stable one which clearly affected Zhang, then related with a second that collapsed the highly effective striker, who got here in driving a streak of 9 straight first-round knockouts. From there, Walker (22-9, 1 NC) pounced on his broken opponent for the ground-and-pound end at 2:37 of the spherical.
“My kick is superior, proper?” Walker stated.
He additionally briefly addressed the group with a number of phrases of Chinese language and gave respect to Zhang (19-7).
“A tricky fighter from China, lots of straight wins,” he stated. “It is a actually good expertise to combat a man that is very powerful. You see, I am sturdy. I received some punches within the face in the present day and I hold coming, After which I received him. That is MMA. Wonderful, proper?”
Walker is unranked by ESPN however No. 13 within the official UFC rankings. Zhang sits one spot behind him.
The co-main occasion was a conflict of ranked featherweights, however the bout was fought at a 153-pound catchweight as a result of Brian Ortega was unable to make the division’s 146-pound weight restrict.
Even given the catchweight, Ortega confirmed little resistance in opposition to Aljamain Sterling, who cruised to a unanimous resolution over 5 dominant rounds (50-45, 50-45, 50-45).
It was noticeable proper from the beginning that Sterling (25-5), a former bantamweight champion, was too fast for the two-time featherweight title challenger. Ortega (16-5, 1 NC) landed solely 7% of his strikes (2 of 28) within the first spherical and was a step behind the remainder of the way in which.
Sterling, No. 9 within the ESPN rankings at 145 kilos, received his second combat in his previous three after dropping his title in 2023, a loss that ended a nine-fight profitable streak. For the fourth-ranked Ortega, it was his second straight loss and his fifth in his previous seven fights.
The combat card additionally included a matchup of heavyweights within the ESPN rankings, wherein No. 6 Sergei Pavlovich took cost within the third spherical to get the higher of ninth-ranked Waldo Cortes-Acosta (30-27, 29-28, 29-28). Pavlovich has received eight of his previous 10 fights however misplaced to the champion, Tom Aspinall, lower than two years in the past.
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