Johnny Walker moves to heavyweight, faces Ante Delija at UFC Belgrade
Johnny Walker is moving to heavyweight for the first time in his UFC career and will face former PFL champion Ante Delija at UFC Belgrade on Aug. 1, multiple people with knowledge of the matchup confirmed to MMA Fighting on Thursday.
The Brazilian has struggled at light heavyweight recently, posting a 2-4 record in his past six outings. His latest setback came at UFC 327 last month when he dropped a split decision to Dominick Reyes in a fight both outlets described as tepid. Walker reportedly walks around at 245 pounds and has trained alongside Francis Ngannou, which helped convince him the time was right to abandon weight cuts and compete at heavyweight for the first time since 2018, per Sherdog.
Delija brings PFL pedigree and two-fight skid
Delija opened his UFC run with a first-round knockout of Marcin Tybura at UFC Vegas 110 last November, but the Croatian has dropped consecutive decisions to Waldo Cortes-Acosta and Serghei Spivac since. The losses mark the first back-to-back defeats of his 34-fight professional career. MMA Mania first reported the booking, and Delija confirmed the pairing on his Instagram Stories on Friday.
Walker competed at heavyweight early in his career before moving down in 2018. He stands 6-foot-5 and has finished 20 of his 22 career victories, though his recent form has been shaky — a no-contest with current champion Magomed Ankalaev in 2023 preceded a rematch loss three months later. His lone win in the past year came when he stopped Mingyang Zhang with leg kicks and punches.
Both fighters head into UFC Belgrade at Belgrade Arena looking to snap losing streaks. Verbal agreements are in place with contracts expected to be signed soon.
Photo: Sexto Round / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
Original reporting:
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