For all of the hype surrounding first-round knockout artist and Chinese light heavyweight prospect Zhang Mingyang, all it took was a second-round rally from the always unpredictable Johnny Walker to provide a heat check during Saturday’s UFC Fight Night main event in Shanghai.
Walker (22-9, 1 NC), the explosive Brazilian striker, survived a particularly hairy opening round before attacking the calves of Zhang (19-7) with a series of hard kicks that dropped him in Round 2. A flurry of punches from Walker followed until referee Marc Goddard stopped the bout at 2:37 inside Shanghai Indoor Stadium.
“Bro, I just kicked him,” Walker said, with his patented cartoonish enthusiasm. “My kick is awesome, right?”
Walker, 34, shook off a two-fight losing skid with the win following stoppage defeats to current champion Magomed Ankalaev and Volkan Oezdemir. But the bigger story surrounded the crumbling of the 27-year-old Zhang, who fought beyond Round 1 for the first time in 16 fights in a streak that dated back to 2018.
Zhang snapped a 12-fight win streak with the loss and it came at a time where “Mountain Tiger” appeared poised for a major push into title contention, which included this headlining role in his home country. After scoring a first-round knockout in 2022 during Season 1 of “Road to the UFC,” Zhang won all three of his first UFC fights by first-round stoppage, including a dominant finish of former title challenger Anthony Smith in April.
For much of the first round on Saturday, Zhang looked the part of future destroyer in a division that could certainly use an influx of young talent to climb into title contention. After Walker met Zhang’s attempt to touch gloves to start the fight with a sneaky double-leg takedown attempt, Zhang instantly reversed into top position and landed strikes.
Zhang did well to duck a series of wild punch attempts from Walker to counter clean and twice wobbled Walker with heavy hooks. Late in the round, Zhang stuffed a takedown attempt from Walker and landed a massive lead elbow in the clinch.
Walker, to his credit, never panicked or lost his composure. He landed a stiff jab to draw blood from the nose of Zhang early in Round 2 before visibly hurting and dropping Zhang following a series of hard calf kicks to the lead leg.
Hammer strikes followed from Walker as Goddard gave Zhang every opportunity to survive on the ground while Walker wailed away from a standing position. A stiff right hand caused damage around the eye of Zhang before Goddard finally stepped in to call the fight, leading to Walker’s patented worm celebration in the center of the Octagon.
Asked after the fight if he had identified leg kicks as a weakness in Zhang during training camp, Walker said no.
“Training is training and fighting is fighting,” Walker said. “You can not take nothing from training. We just train to help each other, we do not fight with our full potential.”
Walker began his UFC run with three explosive wins via stoppage in Round 1 and looked to be on the verge of a title shot until he was finished in the opening round by Corey Anderson in 2019. A run of four defeats in five bouts followed as Walker continued to trade win streaks with losing steaks immediately after, as he bounced around from training with SPG and John Kavanagh in Ireland before finding his most recent home with Erick Nicksick and Extreme Couture in Las Vegas.
“Listen, I did three runs for the title already but I missed,” Walker said. “Now is the definition of title shot run. I want to see the legend die, the Polish power [Jan Blachowicz]. You see what happened the last time you met a Brazilian in the Octagon, right? This makes me very happy to defeat a tough fighter from China who has a lot of big wins. I got some punches in the face today and I keep coming and then I got him. This is amazing, right? It’s MMA.”
Walker scored a stoppage victory for the 20th time in 22 wins since making his pro debut in 2013.
Aljamain Sterling shuts out Brian Ortega, calls for featherweight title shot
In a performance that was more about efficiency than entertainment, former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling pitched a shutout over five rounds and held off a late rally from Brian Ortega in their non-title, co-main event.
The originally scheduled featherweight bout was changed to a 153-pound catchweight after Ortega (16–5, 1 NC) badly missed weight on Friday and looked wobbly on his feet during their faceoff just one day before the fight. Even though Ortega, 34, still had enough left in the tank for the full 25-minute fight, he started excruciatingly slow (landing just two strikes in Round 1) and didn’t pick up the pace until he was already down three rounds on the scorecards.
Sterling (25-5) was booed at times during the championship rounds for choosing to constantly circle away from Ortega, even drawing a warning from referee Herb Dean in Round 5 for avoiding conflict. But the “Funk Master” had still easily done enough over the five rounds to secure the victory with smart boxing from the outside and a dedicated calf kick attack which left Ortega’s lead left leg noticeably discolored.
All three judges scored the fight 50-45 for Sterling, who improved to 2-1 at featherweight following his 2023 stoppage loss to Sean O’Malley which ended Sterling’s two-year reign as 135-pound champion.
“I think their gameplan was to gas me out late because I have had a tendency to gas in the past,” Sterling said. “But 135 is a much different weight class with a much different weight cut. I still got a little tired there. I’m older now. The gas tank isn’t what it used to be but I’m still pushing. I still put on a great performance. I wasn’t trying to get knocked out in China.”
Sterling briefly dropped Ortega with a hard low kick in the opening round. The sustained damage to Ortega’s lead leg began to open up more boxing opportunities for Sterling, who strategically avoided exchanging with Ortega and relied on his footwork to escape any vulnerable positions whenever Ortega was able to cut off the cage.
A looping right hand from Sterling damaged the left eye of Ortega in Round 2. Sterling added even more visible damage to Ortega’s face in Round 4 when a standing clinch along the cage ended with Sterling in a dominant position on the ground landing heavy strikes.
Ortega appeared to briefly hurt Sterling with a right hand in Round 5 that forced Sterling to exclusively circle away. But Ortega, despite pushing the pace heavily late, was unable to find any true momentum in his attempt at yet another rally to finish the bout.
Despite a close decision loss in December to top contender Movsar Evloev, Sterling called for a shot at Alexander Volkanovski’s featherweight title after the win.
“I think I have done enough in this game, I have been around the block and I have defended my belt the most in bantamweight history,” Sterling said. “I’m tied for the most bantamweight wins in UFC history. I came to featherweight, I think I did my damn thing against a really tough dude who fought for the belt twice. Respect, Volkanovski is the f___ing man but I would love an opportunity to fight for the belt again.”
