The bout between Magomed Ankalaev and Johnny
Walker has been called a no contest after Walker was deemed unable
to continue due to an illegal knee from Ankalaev.
#UFC294 pic.twitter.com/Mvy6NwaDso— ESPN MMA (@espnmma)
October 21, 2023
Johnny
Walker and Magomed
Ankalaev didn’t really have a chance to get going at
UFC 294.
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The light heavyweight bout ended in a no contest at the 3:13 mark
of Round 1 when the cageside physician determined Walker couldn’t
continue after absorbing an illegal knee from his opponent. It was
a controversial decision, especially because it seemed like Walker
was ready to continue. However, the Brazilian apparently didn’t
respond adequately to the doctor’s verbal examination.
“The guy’s inexperienced,” UFC CEO Dana White said at Saturday’s
post-fight press conference. “I think there’s a lot of things that
probably happened. I guess he asked him ‘where are you right now?’
and his response was ‘I’m in the desert.’ He’s not wrong.
“I think there’s a big language barrier in there between the two of
them. And he’s inexperienced. It sucks. It’s one of those things
that happens sometimes. We’ll make it right, and we’ll fix it.”
Tensions flared in the aftermath of the ruling, as both Walker and
Ankalaev appeared ready to continue their fight. The two combatants
had to be separated by officials, and even White entered the
Octagon to help cool things down.
“That didn’t look like it was going in the right direction,” White
said. “That was all we needed.”
It’s the second straight unsatisfying resolution for Ankalaev, who
was coming off a split draw against Jan
Blachowicz in a title fight at UFC 282 last December. Walker,
meanwhile, was unable to build upon the momentum of the three-bout
winning streak he had compiled entering UFC 294.