One of the light heavyweight division’s most unpredictable fighters is set to return on Saturday night.
It’s not surprising that a lot of fans will be expecting a knockout in the main event of UFC Shanghai on August 23.
After retiring Anthony Smith in his latest outing, Zhang Mingyang gets a huge opportunity to pick up the biggest win of his career on home soil.
‘Mountain Tiger’ will be coming up against an opponent that has a track record for being both the deliverer and recipient of devastating knockouts.
Johnny Walker may have had some big setbacks in his career, but when he first arrived in the UFC, he made quite the impression.
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Johnny Walker knocked out Khalil Rountree Jr. in his UFC debut in 2018
After accumulating a record of 13-3, fighting mostly in Brazil with a few exceptions, Johnny Walker was given the opportunity to compete for a UFC contract.
He appeared on Dana White’s Contender Series Brazil in 2018 and defeated Henrique da Silva to book his spot on the roster, before making his debut several months later.
The Octagon arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina on November 17, where on the main card, Walker faced off with Khalil Rountree Jr. at light heavyweight.
While this was still long before Rountree Jr. would go on to become one of the top fighters in the division, he was coming off of a huge knockout win over feared striker Gokhan Saki at the time.
Unfortunately for the American, this time around, it was he who was the one getting stopped in the first round.
Walker was able to give fans a small taste of his creative offense on his debut, landing a huge elbow in the clinch which he followed up with a second one to drop his opponent.
Some unnecessary follow-up shots from Walker caused the referee to step in at 1:57 of the first round.
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Johnny Walker was able to build on this debut to produce an instant run to the top of the division
While it can take years for a lot of fighters to work their way up from debuting in the UFC to being considered a top fighter in their division, Johnny Walker did this in one year.
After knocking out Khalil Rountree Jr., he produced two more highlight reel worthy back-to-back first round finishes to emerge as one of the most exciting fighters at light heavyweight.
| Johnny Walker’s early UFC opponents | Event | Result |
| Khalil Rountree Jr. | UFC Fight Night: Buenos Aires | KO (Elbows) – 1:57 of Round 1 |
| Justin Ledet | UFC Fight Night: Fortaleza, Brazil | TKO (Spinning back fist and punches) – 0:15 of Round 1 |
| Misha Cirkunov | UFC 235 | TKO (Flying knee and punches) – 0:38 of Round 1 |
His breakout run was ended in his fourth fight under the UFC banner where he was stopped by Corey Anderson at UFC 244.
Had he won that fight, there was a good chance that Walker was going to be positioned as Jon Jones’ next title challenger.