Johnny Walker spoiled Zhang Mingyang’s homecoming party just as it was getting started early Saturday.
Headlining the first UFC event in China in six years, Walker ended a skid of two straight knockout losses with a shocking knockout of his own in a comeback against the Chinese light heavyweight in the main event of UFC Fight Night in Shanghai.
The 33-year-old Brazilian’s second-round TKO ended a 12-fight winning streak by Zhang, who had not dropped an MMA bout since 2019 and had not even seen a second round since 2018.
Zhang was fully in control throughout Round 1, landing some heavy shots and putting Walker on retreat. But Walker made it to the horn and came out for the second round with a different plan of attack: kicks to the calf. He landed a solid one that clearly affected Zhang, then connected with a second that collapsed the powerful striker, who came in riding a streak of nine straight first-round knockouts. From there, Walker (22-9, 1 NC) pounced on his damaged opponent for the ground-and-pound finish at 2:37 of the round.
“My kick is awesome, right?” Walker said.
He also briefly addressed the crowd with a few words of Chinese and gave respect to Zhang (19-7).
“A tough fighter from China, a lot of straight wins,” he said. “It’s a really good experience to fight a guy that’s very tough. You see, I’m durable. I got some punches in the face today and I keep coming, And then I got him. This is MMA. Amazing, right?”
Walker is unranked by ESPN but No. 13 in the official UFC rankings. Zhang sits one spot behind him.
The co-main event was a clash of ranked featherweights, but the bout was fought at a 153-pound catchweight because Brian Ortega was unable to make the division’s 146-pound weight limit.
Even given the catchweight, Ortega showed little resistance against Aljamain Sterling, who cruised to a unanimous decision over five dominant rounds (50-45, 50-45, 50-45).
It was noticeable right from the start that Sterling (25-5), a former bantamweight champion, was too quick for the two-time featherweight title challenger. Ortega (16-5, 1 NC) landed only 7% of his strikes (2 of 28) in the first round and was a step behind the rest of the way.
Sterling, No. 9 in the ESPN rankings at 145 pounds, won his second fight in his past three after dropping his title in 2023, a loss that ended a nine-fight winning streak. For the fourth-ranked Ortega, it was his second straight loss and his fifth in his past seven fights.
The fight card also included a matchup of heavyweights in the ESPN rankings, in which No. 6 Sergei Pavlovich took charge in the third round to get the better of ninth-ranked Waldo Cortes-Acosta (30-27, 29-28, 29-28). Pavlovich has won eight of his past 10 fights but lost to the champion, Tom Aspinall, less than two years ago.