Johnny Walker vs. Ion Cutelaba added to UFC 279
A fan-friendly light heavyweight fight has been added to UFC 279.
On Thursday, Johnny Walker announced on his YouTube channel that he will be returning at UFC 279 against Ion Cutelaba. The event takes place on September 10 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with the main event seeing Khamzat Chimaev taking on Nate Diaz.
Johnny Walker (18-7) is on a two-fight losing streak after suffering a first-round KO loss to Jamahal Hill and losing a decision to Thiago Santos, in back-to-back main events. His last win came in September of 2020 as he scored a first-round TKO over Ryan Spann but is just 1-4 in his last five. Before beating Spann, Walker suffered a decision loss to Nikita Krylov and a first-round TKO loss to Corey Anderson.
Walker is currently ranked 13th at light heavyweight and started out his UFC career going 3-0. In those first three fights, he knocked out Khalil Rountree in under two minutes, then knocked out Justin Ledet with a spinning backfist in 15 seconds, and followed it up with a 36-second flying knee TKO win over Misha Cirkunov.
Ion Cutelaba (16-7-1 and one No Contest) suffered a first-round submission loss to Ryan Spann back in May after scoring a dominant decision win over Devin Clark. Prior to the win over Clark, he fought Dustin Jacoby to a draw after back-to-back knockout losses to Magomed Ankalaev. The first fight was controversial as many thought the ref stopped it too soon but in the rematch, Ankalaev knocked Cutelaba out cold.
In the UFC, Cutelaba is 4-6-1 with notable wins over Khalil Rountree, and Gadzhimurad Antigulov. His other losses have come to Glover Teixeira, Jared Cannonier, and in his debut was submitted by Misha Cirkunov.
With the addition of Johnny Walker vs. Ion Cutelaba, UFC 279 is as follows:
- Khamzat Chimaev vs. Nate Diaz
- Johnny Walker vs. Ion Cutelaba
- Shamil Abdurakhimov vs. Jailton Almeida
- Norma Dumont vs. Danyelle Wolf
- Irene Aldana vs. Macy Chiasson
- Jamie Pickett vs. Denis Tiuliulin
- Chad Anheliger vs. Heili Alateng
- Elise Reed vs. Melissa Martinez
