Preview: UFC on ABC 6 ‘Whittaker vs. Aliskerov’

Light Heavyweights

#7 LHW | Johnny Walker (21-8, 7-5 UFC) vs. #9 LHW | Volkan Oezdemir (19-7)

ODDS: Walker (-115), Oezdemir (-105)

A solid booking here helps sort some things out in the light heavyweight rankings, with the winner set up to get back into a big fight. Walker had one of the most impressively hot starts to a UFC career in recent memory, as the Brazilian came out of nowhere to go from newcomer to potential title contender in a manner of months. A gigantic light heavyweight with some unique charisma, Walker came to the UFC as a whirlwind of violence and scored three quick knockouts to instantly become a minor star. After Corey Anderson blew through Walker’s lack of defense, his career was fairly aimless for a few years, thanks to some subpar performances and injury layoffs. Walker now seems to have settled into a new approach that mostly overcompensates for a lot of his old flaws. Rather than try to overwhelm opponents with aggression and fury, Walker has now adopted a patient, range-focused approach, looking to keep his opponents at bay in some slow-paced fights. It’s the type of adjustment that usually just results in fighters coasting to unexciting losses, but while Walker’s pivot has mostly succeeded in sucking the fun out of his fights, it has paid surprising dividends in terms of success. Between Walker’s size, athleticism and the limited nature of a lot of light heavyweights, he has been able to skate by through neutralizing opponents and unleashing some moments of violence when needed. Walker’s occasional losses—namely to Jamahal Hill in 2022 and Magomed Ankalaev in January—show that his newfound approach has a clear ceiling. It takes some work for opponents to break through Walker’s defenses, but the whole thing tends to fall apart once they do, since he seems to lose his composure in the chaos while also having some questionable durability. Walker should still have a high floor at 205 pounds as the division is currently constructed, and he gets a chance to hold serve in the Top 10 against Oezdemir.

Oezdemir’s own hot start to his UFC career was even more impressive than Walker’s. He started 2017 outside of the UFC and racked up three straight wins to end the year as the promotion’s top light heavyweight contender. “No Time” was able to march forward and take advantage of his opponents’ laziness in the clinch, which worked all the way up to the point that he got dominated by then-champion Daniel Cormier. After that loss, Oezdemir then had to go through the process of transitioning from a clear frontrunner to a more consistent fighter. That has mostly paid off. Even though Oezdemir still clearly gets uncomfortable against opponents who provide resistance over time, he has also consistently able to gut through those issues and at least make things tough for his opponents over 15 minutes. As a September win over Bogdan Guskov showed, Oezdemir’s still capable of leveraging a clear advantage into a dominant and one-sided win. Oezdemir’s certainly capable of charging out to a hot start and scoring a quick finish. However, it does seem likely that this eventually settles into a dynamic similar to Walker’s recent wins and Oezdemir’s recent losses. Assuming Walker can land some hard offense early in response to whatever the Swiss striker brings to the table, Oezdemir should consent to a more patient fight that allows the Brazilian to work from distance with minimal resistance. The pick is Walker via decision.

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Whittaker vs. Aliskerov
Pavlovich vs. Volkov
Gastelum vs. Rodriguez
Naimov vs. Lima
Walker vs. Oezdemir
The Prelims