UFC Vegas 124 has a new main event.
MMA Fighting has confirmed with sources with knowledge of the matchup that a heavyweight bout between Waldo Cortes-Acosta (17-4) and Johnny Walker (23-10, 1 NC) has been booked as a short-notice headliner for next Saturday’s event at Meta APEX.
It’s unclear whether Cortes-Acosta vs. Walker will be a five- or three-round fight given the late notice. The news was initially reported by Laerte Viana on Twitter.
The news comes shortly after the originally scheduled welterweight main event between Gabriel Bonfim and Sean Brady was pulled from the card as Brady was forced to withdraw due to injury. Bonfim is no longer fighting on November 7 and he will be booked for another card in the future.
Cortes-Acosta looks to end a two-fight skid after an 8-1 run that propelled him into the top 10 heavyweight rankings. He has lost back-to-back decisions to Curtis Blaydes and Alexander Volkov, but holds recent knockout victories over Derrick Lewis, Shamil Gaziev and Ante Delija.
A longtime light heavyweight contender, Walker managed to move up a division last October with a spectacular knee knockout of Mick Parkin at UFC 332.
In the co-main event of UFC Vegas 124, Tatiana Suarez and Virna Jandiroba meet in a clash of top strawweight contenders.
Guilherme Cruz and Mike Heck contributed to this report.
Gn sports
