Walker Knocks Out Zhang in Shanghai: UFC Fight Night with Surprises

In an event that marked the UFC’s return to China after six years, Johnny Walker surprised the audience and Zhang Mingyang with a shocking victory.

Walker Destroys Mingyang in Shanghai

In the main event of the night, Walker, after two consecutive knockout losses, achieved an impressive technical knockout over the Chinese light heavyweight. The fight took place at UFC Fight Night in Shanghai. The 33-year-old Brazilian ended Zhang’s streak of 12 consecutive victories, who hadn’t lost an MMA fight since 2019 and hadn’t seen a second round since 2018.

Zhang dominated the first round, connecting significant blows and putting Walker on the defensive. However, Walker held on until the end of the round and returned with a different strategy in the second: calf kicks. An effective kick affected Zhang, and a second knocked him down. Walker (22-9, 1 NC) took advantage of the situation and finished the fight with ground-and-pound at 2:37 of the second round.

“My kick is incredible, right?”

Johnny Walker

Walker also briefly addressed the crowd in Chinese and showed respect for Zhang (19-7).

“A tough fighter from China, with many consecutive victories. It’s a great experience to fight against a very tough guy. You see, I’m resilient. Today I took some hits to the face and kept going, and then I got it. This is MMA. Incredible, right?”

Johnny Walker

Walker is ranked number 13 in the official UFC rankings, while Zhang is one place below. In the co-main event, two ranked featherweights faced off, although the fight was held at a catchweight of 153 pounds because Brian Ortega could not make the division’s weight limit (146 pounds). Despite the agreed-upon weight, Ortega couldn’t withstand the superiority of Aljamain Sterling, who won by unanimous decision after five dominant rounds (50-45, 50-45, 50-45). From the start, it was noticed that Sterling (25-5), former bantamweight champion, was too fast for Ortega (16-5, 1 NC), who only connected 7% of his strikes (2 of 28) in the first round. Sterling, number 9 in the UFC rankings at 145 pounds, earned his second victory in his last three fights, after losing his title in 2023. For Ortega, it was his second consecutive loss and the fifth in his last seven fights. The fight card also included a heavyweight clash in the UFC rankings, where Sergei Pavlovich, number 6, defeated Waldo Cortes-Acosta, number 9, in the third round (30-27, 29-28, 29-28). Pavlovich has won eight of his last 10 fights, but lost to the champion, Tom Aspinall, less than two years ago.