A light-heavyweight fight between Thiago Santos and Johnny Walker will headline UFC Fight Night 197 on September 25th.
Despite still being ranked No.4 in the division, Santos has actually lost his last three fights in a row, in a slump that began when he narrowly lost out by split decision in a title fight with Jon Jones in July of 2019.
A third round submission loss to Glover Teixeira followed, and then back in March Santos suffered a unanimous decision defeat against Aleksander Rakic.
It’s a far cry from Santos early form in the 205lb division, which had seen him string together a trio of victories via strikes against Eryk Anders, Jimi Manuwa and Jan Blachowicz to earn his title shot, and so he’ll now be hoping to finally rediscover that form against his fellow Brazilian.
Walker is coming off a first round KO victory against Ryan Spann last September, which had ended a two-fight losing run that had saw him being TKO’d by Corey Anderson and decisioned by Nikita Krylov.
Before that Walker had marked his arrival in the UFC with three first-round finishes in a row, and he currently holds the No.10 spot on the light-heavyweight ladder.
Santos vs Walker is currently the only fight attached to the UFC Fight Night 197 event, which does not currently have a confirmed location, but will likely take place at the UFC’s own APEX facility in Las Vegas.
