Waldo Cortes-Acosta faces Johnny Walker in UFC Vegas 124 heavyweight main event
The heavyweight bout was put together to top Saturday's card after Sean Brady withdrew injured from his welterweight main event against Gabriel Bonfim and no replacement was found.
Waldo Cortes-Acosta and Johnny Walker meet in a five-round heavyweight contest at the top of UFC Vegas 124 on Saturday 7 November, a fight arranged at short notice to close the show.
The event was built around a welterweight main event between Gabriel Bonfim and Sean Brady. Brady was forced out with an injury, no replacement could be found, and the heavyweight pairing was moved into the headline slot instead of promoting the strawweight co-main event between Tatiana Suarez and Virna Jandiroba.
The main British interest is on the main card, where Davey Grant faces Elijah Smith at bantamweight. Smith is unbeaten in three UFC fights, is 17 years younger than Grant and said this week that Saturday's bout is the last on his contract. Grant has never been knocked out in his career and has a record of collecting post-fight bonuses, with the Fight of the Night award worth $100,000.
Cortes-Acosta has climbed into the heavyweight top 10 and has never been stopped. Walker, who scored a number of knockouts at light heavyweight, also won by knockout on his heavyweight debut against Parkin, but has been finished several times himself.
Suarez and Jandiroba have both fought for a UFC title, and the winner could move closer to a shot at champion Mackenzie Dern. Jandiroba lost to Dern in her most recent outing, while Suarez has won her past two fights since her defeat by Zhang Weili.
Elsewhere, Lucas Fernando goes into his fight with Billy Elekana as a heavy favourite on the back of a winning run. Priscila Cachoeira faces Milosevic after three successive defeats that followed her knockout of Josiane Nunes, leaving her with one win in six fights since 2023.
Marcos Degli makes his UFC debut against Mitch Raposo. Degli has won 15 professional fights, all but one of them by knockout or submission.
The event features an eight-fight early preliminary card followed by a six-fight main card.
Every UK fight result and what's next, every Friday. Get the free UK fight briefing
More MMA from Combat Sports UK
- Ilia Topuria says brother's call to stop Justin Gaethje fight saved his career
- Islam Makhachev says his team has talked about a middleweight move: 'It would be hard'
- Ciryl Gane on Josh Hokit's trash talk: 'You can insult my mum, you don't know my mum'
- Ilia Topuria on coaching TUF against Paddy Pimblett: 'It's something that could happen'
The UK fight briefing
The stories, results and upcoming fights worth knowing. Every Friday.