Johnny Walker crashed the homecoming of China’s Zhang Mingyang on Saturday in Shanghai, collecting a second-round stoppage win and handing the prospect his first UFC defeat to close out the show at Shanghai Indoor Stadium.
Entering on a three-fight winning streak in the Octagon, many viewed this weekend’s main event as a potential showcase moment for Zhang, who had scored first-round finishes in each of his first three UFC appearances, but Walker had other ideas. After a first round where both men were a little erratic and trying to end things with one blow, Walker started attacking the lead leg of “The Mountain Tiger,” eventually cutting him down with a heavy calf kick. He pounced on the opportunity, and while referee Marc Goddard gave Zhang every opportunity to recover and find safety, Walker was relentless in his pursuit of the finish and ultimately forced the veteran official to wave off the action.
This was a crucial win for Walker, who came into the contest having suffered consecutive first-round knockout losses and seeking his first win in more than two years. Though he’s always going to be a little wild and unpredictable, this effort showed that he’s still a dangerous member of the light heavyweight ranks, and it’s going to be interesting to see if he can build off this performance with additional time working with Eric Nicksick and the team at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas.
For Zhang, it’s a disappointing setback in a fight that surely meant a great deal to the ascending Chinese talent. His power is undeniable, and he had some good moments in the opening round, but Saturday’s bout showed that he still has areas he needs to work on, gaps in his skill set that he needs to address before he can start to compete with the more seasoned members of the upper tier in the light heavyweight division.
Sterling cruises, but title request falls flat
Aljamain Sterling collected a unanimous decision win over Brian Ortega in the five-round co-main event, which was contested at a catchweight after Ortega had issues with his weight cut.
The former bantamweight champion used his footwork and sharp jab to dictate the terms of engagement for the vast majority of the fight, picking his spots and scoring in spurts before circling off. It wasn’t until the final round that Ortega finally landed something of substance, and even then, Sterling was able to dance away and recover before finishing out the fight in top position, landing his heaviest blows of the fight.
In his post-fight interview, Sterling politely made a case for a championship opportunity, attempting to leverage his bantamweight resume and win over Ortega to land a fight with Alexander Volkanovski. Unfortunately for “The Funkmaster,” there are several others ahead of him in the pecking order at the moment, including Movsar Evloev, who beat him back in December to remain unbeaten.
Featherweight is both changing and a little stale at the moment, though that could change in a relatively short amount of time.
While fresh contenders like Lerone Murphy and Jean Silva work forward, and fighters like Youssef Zalal and perhaps Losene Keita look to make waves, the Top 10 remains stacked with veteran talents like Sterling, Ortega, and Yair Rodríguez that seem exclusively focused on
facing other veterans and lobbying fir championship opportunities. Shuffling the deck and matching new names with the established set could produce some exciting pairings, and breathe a little more life into the division as we head towards the final quarter of the year.
Pavlovich holds serve at heavyweight
Former interim title challenger Sergei Pavlovich ended the lengthy winning streak of Waldo Cortes-Acosta on Saturday’s main card, protecting his place in the heavyweight pecking order.
Throughout the 15-minute affair, the Russian patiently landed sharp blows, connecting every time the Dana White’s Contender Series (DWCS) graduate over-extended. Rather than chase a knockout, Pavlovich was content to sting Cortes-Acosta with heavy blows and reset, repeating his approach through to the final horn.
This was an important victory for the dangerous, veteran contender as the division starts to get moving again with Tom Aspinall now installed as the undisputed champion.
There are only a handful of established contenders in the division at the moment, with only Ciryl Gane and Alexander Volkov currently positioned ahead of Pavlovich in the rankings. As Gane is set to challenge for the title in October and he’s recently lost to Volkov, the 33-year-old is likely going to have to fight backwards and defend his position at least once more in order to allow for some movement at the top of the weight class. But his consecutive decision wins show that Pavlovich is much more than a first-round mauler and should continue to serve him well going forward.
As for Cortes-Acosta, this is a small setback for a fighter that has rocketed up the ranks in a relatively short amount of time. He wasn’t able to string together enough offence to really threaten Pavlovich save for the occasional heavy shot, but he showed he can go the distance with an elite talent, and with a little more seasoning and an uptick in output, “Salsa Boy” could eventually land himself a place in the Top 5.
Octagon odds & ends
The main card opener between Taiyilake Nueralji and Kiefer Crosbie was a difficult one to discuss. On one hand, Nueralji looked dangerous, dispatching the Irish veteran with a stream of heavy elbows, but on the other hand, the finish was marred by the Chinese athlete landing a brutal illegal knee earlier in the fight that cost him two points.
Crosbie wanted to continue — rarely do you see fighters opt to stop — but there is no way he was recovered from eating a gnarly knee to the face. Everything was handled properly by referee Marc Goddard, but you can’t help but wonder if the decision to continue should be taken out of the athlete’s hands in these situations. Nueralji handled business on the re-start, but the win definitely comes with a large asterisk.
Charles Johnson entered his fight with Lone’er Kavanagh with a chip on his shoulder and exited with an hellacious knockout win in his back pocket. “InnerG” landed a clean right hand late in the second round to hand the British prospect his first loss, and coupled with his similar effort against pending title challenger Joshua Van, the veteran is building a reputation for beating emerging names in impressive fashion.
It might be time to start paying a little more attention to Rongzhu, as the Chinese lightweight collected his second win of the year on Saturday, out-working durable American Austin Hubbard on the scorecards. The 25-year-old, who is now working with City Kickboxing, has grown into his frame, made clear improvements since his first stint in the promotion, and still has additional room to grow.
Welcome back to the UFC, Kyle Daukaus! The former CFFC standout scored a first-round knockout win over Michel Pereira, dropping him with a short right hook before chasing him to the canvas and smashing out the finish. Just a brilliant effort from the 32-year-old returning middleweight, who has now won five straight overall.
Yi Zha mauled Westin Wilson in just 37 seconds, thrilling the partisan crowd at Shanghai Indoor Stadium. The former Road to UFC tournament winner launched a series of left hand rockets at the American, who could not avoid the onslaught and was quickly dispatched to the Shadow Realm.
Uran Satybaldiev kicked off the early morning action with a first-round Ezekiel choke submission win over Diyar Nurgozhay. The 31-year-old from Kyrgyzstan debuted on short notice at heavyweight, dropping a competitive decision to Martin Buday, but looked right at home back in his natural weight class, running through the recent DWCS grad while collecting the fifth Ezekiel choke finish in UFC history.
