Johnny Walker got back to winning ways tonight at UFC 279 with a first round rear-naked choke finish of Ion Cutelaba.
Round One:
Cutelaba with a low kick to start. Now he tries a head kick that grazes the target. Now Walker with a high kick of his own, but Cutelaba blocks and immediately takes him down.
Walker looking for strikes from his back as Cutelaba looks to posture up and land ground and pound from inside his guard.
So far Cutelaba hasn’t had a chance to let his punches go, but now he’s trying for a an armbar, but that doesn’t pay off and it enables Walker to get up.
Now it’s Walker who has Cutelaba’s back standing and then takes him down. He’s got his back and is working for a crank. He adjusts and tries for the rear-naked choke, but Cutelaba gets free of that.
Walker still has his hooks in though and looks for punches to soften up his opponent, then goes back to the rear-naked choke, and this time it’s locked in tight. Cutelaba tries to fight it off, but then is left with no option but to tap out at 4.37mins of the first round.
That win will comes as a big relief for Walker, who had only won once in his previous five fights.
