Magomed Ankalaev ended his saga with Johnny Walker in devastating style, stopping the Brazilian with a second round TKO.
There was no love lost between the pair heading into the contest after their first meeting back in October when Ankalaev caught Walker with an illegal blow midway through the first round. He ensured there was no controversy ending their rematch.
The Russian landed first with a stiff jab before Walker fired a flurry of unorthodox strikes. Walker did a good job of keeping Ankalaev at bay with his kicks, which led to Ankalaev struggling to chain his attacks together.
It was apparent both men had a lot of respect for one another’s power, with plenty of feints throughout the round but neither man fully committing to impactful strikes.
There was a brief pause to the action towards the end of the opening stanza when one of Ankalaev’s kicks rattled off Walker’s cup.
Round 2 started at a much more ferocious pace with the pair meeting in the middle and trading. Ankalaev’s forward pressure kept Walker on the back foot.
The unrelenting forward pressure paid dividends midway through the second round when a huge back hand send Walker crashing to the mat. It was followed up with one more powerful strike before Marc Goddard stepped in and called an end to the action.
In the Co-main event, Jim Miller continued to prove that age is just a number with a third round face crank over Gabriel Benitez.
The two went to war over two and a half rounds, exchanging heavy strikes throughout with Miller using his experience to nullify any momentum Benitez looked to build.
Having competed at both UFC 100 & 200, the 40-year-old has made it extremely clear he intends to feature on UFC 300 and following the victory, he named a few potential opponents.
“Well, UFC 300 is coming up. I’ve got three months to heal up, stay in shape and stay ready. All I need is to just find an opponent at this point.
“There’s a couple of names that've been thrown out that have intrigued me a bit. One of them is sitting at the desk, Paul Felder. I think that would be a fun fight. You know I’ve got the most finishes at Lightweight, Matt Brown. I’d love to go up to 170 and fight the guy with the most knockouts in UFC history and one of the guys at the top of the Welterweight division.”
Miller then even joked that if the money was right, he would be up for a fight against Brock Lesnar!
Elsewhere in the main card, Mario Bautista may have earned his place in the rankings following an unanimous decision victory over Ricky Simon. Brunno Ferreira needed only one round to dispatch of Phil Hawes and legend Andrei Arlovski was handed his third consecutive loss at the hands of Waldo Cortes-Acosta.
Prelim standouts included Marcus McGhee’s finish over Gaston Boanos, Jean Silva’s first round stoppage of Westin Wilson and Nikolas Motta stopping Tom Nolan in the very first round.
Next up for the UFC is their monster UFC 297 card, which will see Sean Strickland look to make his first title defence against the promotionally undefeated Dricus Du Plessis as Raquel Pennington will face Maya Bueno Silva for the vacant women’s Bantamweight championship.
