Magomed Ankalaev was picked up by strong Johnny Walker

One of the most famous domestic fighters in mixed martial arts (MMA) Magomed Ankalaev will fight with Brazilian Johnny Walker in October. Ankalaev at the end of last year could have already won the title of UFC, the main promotion in MMA, but he missed the chance by ending the fight with Pole Jan Blachowicz. In the event of a victory over Walker, he will again be close to the title, given that due to the serious injury of American Jamal Hill, who received it, it recently turned out to be vacant for the second time in a row.

The fact that as part of the UFC 294 tournament, which will be held on October 21 in Abu Dhabi, Magomed Ankalaev will meet with Johnny Walker, was reported MMA Junkie and a number of other media resources. The duel will further strengthen the already noticeable “Russian component” of the show. In his central fights in the octagon come out two extremely popular fighters in Russia at once. Islam Makhachev will defend his champion title in the 70 kg category in a duel with the Brazilian Charles Oliveira, whom he defeated last year. And the native of Chechnya, Khamzat Chimaev, playing for Sweden, who has a bright series of victories behind him and is close to the title, will meet with one of the most dangerous opponents in the weight category up to 77 kg – Oliveira’s compatriot Paulo Costa.

The duel of Magomed Ankalaev in its significance and relevance, if inferior to the matches of Makhachev and Chimaev, is quite a bit.

Ankalaev is also an undisputed UFC superstar. Making his debut in 2018 in the leading promotion, he unexpectedly lost in the last seconds to Paul Craig. But then Ankalaev issued a series of nine wins, including against elite opponents like Volkan Ozdemir, Thiago Santos, Anthony Smith. And the spectacularity with which most of them were obtained made the UFC raise the Russian in the ranking very high and give him a chance to fight for the champion title.

He was vacant in the light heavyweight division when Jiri Prochazka of the Czech Republic voluntarily parted ways with him last November after suffering a severe shoulder injury. For the title of Ankalaev fell out to fight against the Pole Jan Blachowicz, who previously owned it. The first two rounds of the December fight turned out to be boring, and as a result of them, Blachowicz created a certain margin of safety. However, then Ankalaev intercepted the initiative and had a good ending. In the fifth and final round, he actually dominated the octagon thanks to his remarkable wrestling skills.

According to the main statistical indicators, Magomed Ankalaev surpassed Jan Blachowicz. He threw 182 hits against 79 – for the Pole, controlled the position in the stalls for 11 minutes, while the opponent’s control turned out to be zero. Ankalaev also had two takedowns, while Blachowicz had none. However, this difference was not decisive. One referee, Mike Bell, gave the win to Blachowicz – 48:47, the second, Derek Cleary, – to Ankalaev – 48:46, and on the Sal D’Amato card there was a draw – 47:47. It was also the result of the fight, after which the head of the UFC, Dana White, did not hide his dissatisfaction with the passivity of his opponents and decided to arrange a fight for the still ownerless title to other fighters. In it, in January, the American Jamal Hill confidently dealt with the 43-year-old Brazilian veteran Glover Teixeira.

However, approximately the same story happened to Hill as to Jiri Prochazka. In the summer, he played basketball unsuccessfully, in mid-July reporting that he had torn his Achilles tendon. Such injuries take months to heal, and Hill honestly said that due to a long break in his career, the title is vacated.

That is, now he is vacant again, and it is clear that success in the next fight will at least return Magomed Ankalaev to the candidate status. In the end, only the sick Jamal Hill and Jiri Prochazka are above him in the UFC light heavyweight rankings.

At the same time, in the October duel Ankalaev, of course, will be a clear favorite.

Johnny Walker, 31-year-old the same age as the Russian, is a tough fighter with solid experience. He appeared in the UFC at the same time as Magomed Ankalaev and managed to take part in 11 fights in promotion tournaments. But their impressions were rather mixed. Sometimes Walker got good fights – one of them was the one in which he won a unanimous decision from Anthony Smith in May. But often seasoned rivals created too many problems for him. Walker suffered four defeats in the UFC, and the same Jamal Hill in February 2022 simply destroyed him due to his advantage in striking technique already in the first round.

Alexey Dospekhov