North Carolina fans… 𝑮𝑬𝑻 𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑫𝒀🙌
We make our return to the @SpectrumCenter
May 13th!
#UFCCharlotte pic.twitter.com/fVm5Gf2js9— UFC (@ufc)
March 30, 2023
The Ultimate Fighting Championship will be posting
up in the Queen City of Charlotte, North Carolina, for the first
time since 2018.
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The promotion revealed
on Thursday that it would be making its return to North Carolina’s
most populous city on May 13. The Spectrum Center will play host to
UFC Fight Night: Smith vs. Walker, which does not currently
have a numbered designation as the broadcast plans are not set in
stone as to whether it will go down on ESPN airwaves. Anthony
Smith (36-17) vs. Johnny
Walker (20-7) will serve as its headliner in the light
heavyweight division, in this arena’s first UFC card since UFC on
Fox 27 in 2018 featuring Ronaldo
Souza vs. Derek
Brunson 2.
The promotion last traveled to North Carolina in 2020, when it
staged UFC Fight Night 166 topped by Curtis
Blaydes and Junior dos
Santos in Raleigh. This fight card will be the second to take
place inside the Spectrum Center, formerly known as the Time Warner
Arena, the home of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets. Prior to
“Jacare”-Brunson 2, the organization took to Charlotte back in
2010, in the smaller Bojangles Coliseum for UFC Fight Night 21. Of
note, two of the first five UFC events were held in Charlotte, as
UFC 3 and 5 went down in the colloquially coined “QC.”
In Smith’s lone 2022 appearance, he encountered Magomed
Ankalaev and was punched out in the second round. Before then,
Smith had chained together three stoppage victories over Devin Clark,
Jimmy
Crute and Ryan Spann to
keep himself in top contention at 205 pounds. As a pro, “Lionheart”
posts an impressive finish rate of at least 94%, with one of his
early outings in 2004 without a discernable method of victory.
Not to be outdone by his prospective opponent, Brazil’s Walker
counters with a stellar stoppage rate of 95%. Walker has won his
last two, with a submission in late 2022 over Ion
Cutelaba and a speedy knockout of Paul Craig
in January. Before this win streak, Walker had fallen on hard time,
with only one contentious victory in the middle of four losses. The
high-flying Walker initially announced himself to the promotion
with three spectacular first-round finishes of Khalil
Rountree, Justin
Ledet and Misha
Cirkunov, and all six of his UFC victories have come in Round
1.