Paul Craig will be heading to Brazil for his next fight against Johnny Walker at UFC 283 in Rio de Janeiro on January 21st.
The 34-year-old Craig saw a six-fight unbeaten run come to an end last time out in July with a unanimous decision loss against Volkan Oezdemir.
The submission specialist had been causing real problems for his opponents in previous fights though, tapping out opponents like Nikita Krylov and Gadzhimurad Antigulov with his deadly triangle choke, while also TKO’ing Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua and Jamahal Hill.
That means Craig still holds the No.9 spot in the light-heavyweight rankings as he heads into his next fight against the 30-year-old Walker, who finally got back to winning ways with a submission finish against Ion Cutelaba last month.
However, before that Walker had suffered four losses from his previous five fights, with a sole KO win over Ryan Spann during that period being overshadowed by a KO loss to Jamahal Hill, TKO defeat against Corey Anderson and decision losses against Nikita Krylov and Thiago Santos.
Nevertheless, Hill still stands at No.11 on the 205lb rankings ahead of his fight with Craig on a UFC 283 card that will also feature a fourth flyweight title fight between Deiveson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno and a middleweight bout between Gregory Rodrigues and Brad Tavares.