Mick Maynard’s Shoes: What’s next for Johnny Walker after UFC Vegas 124 win?

Johnny Walker has only been a heavyweight for a little more than a month, and already he has two fights, two wins and two bonuses.

After knocking out Mick Parkin with a sick knee at UFC 332 on Oct. 3, Walker (24-10 MMA, 10-7 UFC) stepped up on short notice for a main event when the promotion needed him to face Waldo Cortes Acosta (17-5 MMA, 10-5 UFC) on Saturday at UFC Fight Night 293 from Meta APEX in Las Vegas.

It was a gamble after the promising start in his new division after a bumpy final few years at light heavyweight, and early on it looked like it might’ve been a mistake.

But then it paid off when he delivered a third-round TKO, and Walker answered some important questions about himself and opened up greater questions about his ceiling.

Walker’s conditioning held up quite well given the short-notice nature of the fight, and especially since Cortes Acosta was pressuring him, forcing the Brazilian to use a lot of movement and quite literally run away at times. More noteworthy than that, though, was his durability.

Cortes Acosta might not be the biggest hitter at heavyweight, but he’s got speed and power. Walker took some hard shots, which is something he struggled to do at 205 pounds. And if that continues against more powerful strikers, he’s going to have a chance in a lot of matchups.

The likes of Sergei Pavlovich, Derrick Lewis, Curtis Blaydes and Alexander Volkov could not knock out Cortes Acosta, but Walker was able to do it in spectacular fashion, which should say something about what he could be capable of.

Does all of this praise mean we should rush to anoint Walker as a future heavyweight champion? Absolutely not. Many people made that mistake once before when he came on the scene to start his UFC career, and we shouldn’t overreact to a good month.

Still, though, this stretch of success has given Walker momentum and confidence, and that’s the special sauce for a fighter like himself. It doesn’t take much to make noise at heavyweight, and Walker is going to find himself inside the top 10 next week on many rankings.

The next matchup that stands out above all would be against perennial contender Blaydes (20-6 MMA, 15-6 UFC), who is also coming off a win over Cortes Acosta in September and is always willing to take on any challenge. The wrestling dynamic that “Razor” brings to the octagon would present a different sort of test for Walker, and if he wins, it could be his ticket to a matchup with someone in the heavyweight top five.

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Mick Maynard’s Shoes: What’s next for Johnny Walker after UFC Vegas 124 win?