Waldo Cortes-Acosta on Johnny Walker: 'Everybody knock him out' and 'break the head right away'

The No. 6 heavyweight says Walker "can do nothing at all" at light heavyweight and rates Ryan Spann "more better" before their UFC Vegas 124 main event on Saturday.

Waldo Cortes-Acosta says he will go straight at Johnny Walker on Saturday. "I go for him, break the head right away," he said at UFC Vegas 124 media day on Wednesday, three days before the pair headline at the Meta APEX. "I don't think I need to play with anybody."

Asked about Walker's move up to heavyweight, Cortes-Acosta, speaking in English, his second language, said Walker "can do nothing at all" at light heavyweight, adding: "everybody knock him out." He called Walker "easy to hit" and said Walker believes the new division gives him a better chance of moving forward and one day getting a title shot, but that he would first have to get past Cortes-Acosta and plenty of others.

Walker has been knocked out or stopped four times in the UFC: by Corey Anderson in 2019, Jamahal Hill in 2022, and Magomed Ankalaev and Volkan Oezdemir in 2024. He moved up in October and knocked out England's Mick Parkin with a knee at UFC 332, in the first round.

Cortes-Acosta was not impressed by that win either. Asked how he would deal with Walker's speed, he said: "I think Ryan Spann is more better than him." Both men have beaten Spann: Walker knocked him out in the first round in September 2020, and Cortes-Acosta stopped him in the second round in March 2025.

He said Walker spent the Parkin fight "running around for his life" and won it with "a clinch, one knee, and that's it." He added: "It's not be the same with me. I'm athletic, I'm real heavyweight." Cortes-Acosta said he has weighed between 265 and 270 pounds for his whole UFC career.

The reporter then brought up Walker's chin, which Cortes-Acosta had mentioned in his earlier answer. He turned to his own instead. "I know now how my chin are. It's like a metal in there," he said, and warned that once he moves his feet, opponents go to sleep.

Cortes-Acosta (17-4), No. 6 in the UFC heavyweight rankings, comes in on two straight decision defeats, to Curtis Blaydes and Alexander Volkov. He said he has a new coach and is moving his feet more. Walker is 23-10. Their fight became the main event after Sean Brady pulled out of his bout with Gabriel Bonfim injured. In the UK, the main card starts at 1am on Sunday on TNT Sports.

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