Johnny Walker may want to change his name to Johnny Hopper. Walker, hopping on one leg for the majority of his finish, scored a first-round TKO of Paul Craig at UFC 283 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Saturday.
Walker vs. Craig started out relatively slow with both fighters measuring the distance. Walker, the more experienced striker, landed the occasional leg kick to keep his opponent humble. Craig created an opportunity for himself by catching Walker’s kick, but it was the beginning of the end for the Scot. Walker landed a hard right cross while standing on one leg. Craig, latching onto Walker’s leg, was unable to defend himself from a flurry of punches and back fists. Walker planted his foot by the fence and walloped on Craig with backwards hammer fists for a TKO stoppage at 2:16 of Round 1.
“I don’t give a f—. This is my division now,” Walker told Daniel Cormier during their post-fight interview. “You were the big champ-champ. Now it’s my turn. You are a big motivation for me. I want to be like Cormier. I want to have two belts.”
Walker improved to 20-7 with consecutive finishes against Craig and Ion Cutelaba. He will likely usurp Craig’s No. 10 light heavyweight ranking come Monday. Craig dropped to 16-6-1 and has lost back-to-back fights.
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