UFC Predictions: UFC Fight Night: Johnny Walker vs. Jamahal Hill
After a major pay-per-view on Saturday, the UFC returns to its Las Vegas APEX this weekend for another Fight Night event.
This Fight Night event has lost its originally planned main event. However, with many fun-sounding bouts on tap, it could still be a UFC show well worth watching
Johnny Walker vs Jamahal Hill is being bumped to the main event at #UFCVegas48 next week, per sources confirmed to me and @MikeHeck_JR.
Full story coming to @MMAFighting. First reported by @arielhelwani
On that note, here are the predicted outcomes for UFC Fight Night: Johnny Walker vs. Jamahal Hill.
#1. UFC light heavyweight division: Johnny Walker vs. Jamahal Hill
It’s safe to say this fight isn’t as good as the headliner it’s replacing: Rafael dos Anjos vs. Rafael Fiziev. However, it’s still an exciting-sounding battle between two of the UFC’s most explosive 205 lbers. Considering the way they fight, it may not last too long.
Of the two, it’s probably safe to suggest that Jamahal Hill has more momentum coming into next weekend. The last time we saw him in the octagon, he dispatched the tough Jimmy Crute inside 48 seconds. Hill dropped his opponent with a clean right hook that left him out cold, earning the former a $50K bonus.
@JamahalH #UFCVegas44SWEET DREAMS INDEED 😳 @JamahalH #UFCVegas44 https://t.co/iW9LJHuaDo
The win was probably the best performance of Hill’s octagon career thus far, showing in a nutshell everything ‘Sweet Dreams’ has to offer.
Essentially, Hill is an unorthodox, dangerous striker who can throw and land his shots from seemingly any angle. At 6’ 4”, he boasts a long 79” reach, and we’ve seen him use that length to pick his foes apart on many occasions.
Unfortunately, while Hill is definitely an excellent prospect, he has also shown some clear weaknesses in his tenure thus far. His loss to Paul Craig saw him display some naivety on the ground.
He essentially put himself into an armbar variant, and saw his arm snapped. He also gassed out in his win over Darko Stosic, slowing dramatically as the fight went on. So can Hill beat arguably his trickiest opponent in the form of Johnny Walker this weekend? It’s very debatable.
Somehow, Walker is even more of a wildman than Hill is. The Brazilian debuted in the octagon in late 2018 with a brutal knockout win over Khalil Rountree. When he followed that with further knockouts of Justin Ledet and Misha Cirkunov, it looked like the UFC had found a new superstar.
However, subsequent losses to Corey Anderson and Nikita Krylov exposed his all-or-nothing style somewhat. While he did beat Ryan Spann in 2020, his lone fight in 2021 saw him fall to Thiago Santos.
That clash was an outlier in that Walker seemed to attempt more of a point-fighting style than ever before, but it simply didn’t work. Therefore, the likelihood of him trying it again here appears slim.
The big question here is whether Hill can cope with a fighter who stands taller than him, and has an even longer reach. Walker certainly isn’t as adept in keeping an opponent at the end of his strike as ‘Sweet Dreams’ is. However, he could also be tricky for Hill to hit, unless he comes in too openly, which he might well do.
Basically then, this one should come down to whether Walker can use his superior reach to connect with something nasty to Hill before he inevitably slows down. However, it’s also worth noting that Hill himself has slowed down in the past, meaning he might not even be capable of capitalizing if Walker gasses out. Therefore, with all things considered, the pick here is Walker via TKO.
The Pick: Walker via first-round TKO.