Waldo Cortes Acosta gets the first main event of his UFC career on Saturday 7 November, against Johnny Walker at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas. The heavyweight fight was moved to the top of the UFC Fight Night card after the original headliner, Gabriel Bonfim vs Sean Brady, was cancelled. Cortes Acosta is No. 6 in the division; UFC lists Walker at No. 12, and he fights again just five weeks after his heavyweight debut. The main card starts at 20:00 ET on Saturday, which is 01:00 GMT and 03:00 Riga time on Sunday morning. Tatiana Suarez vs Virna Jandiroba, a strawweight fight between the No. 2 and No. 3 contenders, is the co-main event.
Tale of the tape
 Waldo Cortes Acosta | Johnny Walker | |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 17-4-0 | 23-10-0 (1 NC) |
| Age | 35 | 34 |
| Height | 193 cm (6’4″) | 198 cm (6’6″) |
| Reach | 198 cm (78″) | 208 cm (82″) |
| Stance | Orthodox | Orthodox |
| Division | Heavyweight (No. 6) | Heavyweight (No. 12 per UFC) |
| From | Barahona, Dominican Republic | Belford Roxo, Brazil |
| Wins by KO/TKO | 9 | 18 |
| Last fight | Beat Curtis Blaydes, decision (September 2026) | Beat Parkin, KO round 1 (October 2026) |
Waldo Cortes Acosta: the busiest heavyweight in the UFC
Cortes Acosta took a strange road to this point. He pitched in the Cincinnati Reds minor-league system before he ever trained MMA, turned pro in 2018, won the LFA heavyweight title and earned his UFC contract on the Contender Series in 2022. UFC lists him as the only active Dominican fighter on its roster.
What stands out is how often he fights. He went 4-1 with three knockouts in 2025, and has fought three more times this year. He doesn’t pick soft fights either: in January he stopped Derrick Lewis in the second round at UFC 324, the biggest win of his career at the time, and in September he outpointed Curtis Blaydes over three rounds, against one of the best wrestlers the division has.
The one real setback this year came in May, when Alexander Volkov beat him on the cards at UFC 328. Volkov is a tall, long striker who fought him at range, and that is the fight Walker will want to copy.
Recent form:
- 12 Sep 2026, Noche UFC: beat Curtis Blaydes, unanimous decision
- 9 May 2026, UFC 328: lost to Alexander Volkov, unanimous decision
- 24 Jan 2026, UFC 324: beat Derrick Lewis, TKO (punches), round 2, 3:14
- 22 Nov 2025, UFC Fight Night (Qatar): beat Shamil Gaziev, KO, round 1, 1:22
- 1 Nov 2025, UFC Fight Night (Las Vegas): beat Ante Delija, TKO (punches), round 1, 3:59
Johnny Walker: a new division, the same danger
Walker spent seven years as one of the most unpredictable light heavyweights in the UFC: brilliant one night, flat the next. He has 18 knockouts and 18 first-round finishes on his record, and six of his wins took less than a minute. He was also stopped four times in the UFC, all at light heavyweight, most recently by Magomed Ankalaev and Volkan Oezdemir in 2024.
Moving up seems to have suited him. At UFC 332 in October he made his heavyweight debut and knocked Parkin out 3:35 into the first round. He fights again on short turnaround, five weeks later, and against a much more experienced heavyweight than Parkin.
Recent form:
- 3 Oct 2026, UFC 332: beat Parkin, KO, round 1, 3:35 (heavyweight debut)
- 11 Apr 2026, UFC 327: lost to Dominick Reyes, split decision
- 23 Aug 2025, UFC Fight Night: beat Zhang Mingyang, TKO (punches), round 2, 2:37
- 22 Jun 2024, UFC on ABC: lost to Volkan Oezdemir, KO, round 1, 2:28
- 13 Jan 2024, UFC Fight Night: lost to Magomed Ankalaev, KO, round 2, 2:42
How the styles match up
This is a stand-up fight, and both men know it. Neither has much interest in wrestling: UFC.com’s numbers show Cortes Acosta at 0.36 takedowns per 15 minutes and Walker at 0.35. Cortes Acosta throws far more. He lands 5.03 significant strikes a minute and absorbs 3.44; Walker lands 3.98 and absorbs 2.99, but at 56% accuracy he is the more precise of the two. The big gap is defence. Cortes Acosta avoids 55% of the strikes thrown at him; Walker avoids only 46%, and his fights last an average of just over seven minutes for a reason.
Walker has the reach, four inches of it, and the stranger rhythm. He switches between long kicks, flying knees and sudden right hands, and he is at his most dangerous in the first round. Cortes Acosta is the steadier fighter: a heavy right hand, a lot of volume and a pace that doesn’t drop. His average fight goes 11 minutes, and seven of his 17 wins went the distance.
Key factors:
- The first five minutes. Walker’s best chance is early, before Cortes Acosta settles into his output.
- Range. Volkov beat Cortes Acosta by fighting long. Walker has the reach to do the same, but patience has never been his strength.
- Durability. Cortes Acosta has never been stopped in the UFC. Walker has been stopped three times since 2022.
- Five rounds. As a main event this is set for 25 minutes. Cortes Acosta has heard the final bell nine times in the UFC, and pace is his edge if it goes long.
Our pick: Cortes Acosta by TKO
We are picking Waldo Cortes Acosta by TKO in the second half of the fight. Walker can end anyone’s night in the opening round, and if he lands clean early we are wrong. But he has to do it before the volume starts piling up. Cortes Acosta takes a shot well, he will keep walking forward, and over 25 minutes the fighter who throws more and defends better usually finds the finish.
Co-main event: Tatiana Suarez vs Virna Jandiroba
| Tatiana Suarez | Virna Jandiroba | |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 13-1-0 | 23-4-0 |
| Age | 35 | 38 |
| Height | 165 cm (5’5″) | 160 cm (5’3″) |
| Reach | 168 cm (66″) | 163 cm (64″) |
| Division | Strawweight (No. 2) | Strawweight (No. 3) |
| Wins by submission | 7 | 14 |
| Last fight | Beat Loopy Godinez, submission round 2 (April 2026) | Beat Tabatha Ricci, decision (April 2026) |
This is the wrestler against the jiu-jitsu player, and the winner moves right into the strawweight title conversation. Suarez is the best pure wrestler in the division, a two-time world championship bronze medallist in freestyle, and she averages 4.52 takedowns per 15 minutes. Her only loss came in her title shot against Zhang Weili at UFC 312 in February 2025. Since then she has beaten Amanda Lemos on points and choked out Loopy Godinez in the second round at UFC 327.
Jandiroba is a second-degree jiu-jitsu black belt with 14 submission wins, and she is comfortable fighting off her back. She stops 73% of takedown attempts, she lost a five-round title fight to Mackenzie Dern at UFC 321 in October 2025, and she bounced back with a decision over Tabatha Ricci in April.
Suarez has submitted three of her last six opponents, with two guillotines and a rear-naked choke, so she isn’t just a lay-and-pray wrestler. Jandiroba’s danger is in scrambles. Pick: Suarez by decision. She should win the takedown battle in most rounds and stay heavy enough to keep Jandiroba from getting her guard working.
The rest of the card
Also on the main card: Davey Grant vs Elijah Smith at bantamweight, Billy Elekana vs Lucas Fernando at light heavyweight, Nina Milošević vs Priscila Cachoeira at women’s bantamweight and Mitch Raposo vs Marcos Degli at flyweight.
The Baltic interest is on the prelims: Lithuanian middleweight Mantas Kondratavičius (9-1) faces Andre Petroski. In a featherweight fight on the same part of the card, Lucas Brennan is out and Carlos Calderon steps in to face Austin Bashi (14-2). Calderon (11-4) makes his UFC debut. He is 30, was born in Los Angeles, lost to Alberto Montes on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2024 and has won his last three fights in Fury FC, including a submission of former UFC fighter Damon Jackson in May. UFC says he has finished eight of his 11 wins. Also on the prelims, Thomas Petersen has replaced Alvin Hines as Gabriel Lorenco‘s opponent at heavyweight, two ranked flyweights, Karine Silva and Gabriella Fernandes, meet, and Seokhyeon Ko faces Wellington Turman at welterweight.
Where to watch Cortes Acosta vs Walker UFC LIVE Stream
UFC Fight Night: Cortes Acosta vs Walker is on Saturday 7 November 2026 at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas. Start times from UFC.com (the US is on Eastern Standard Time from 1 November, and the UK is on GMT):
| ET (Sat) | GMT | Riga | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prelims | 17:00 | 22:00 Sat | 00:00 Sun |
| Main card | 20:00 | 01:00 Sun | 03:00 Sun |
Cortes Acosta vs Walker is the last fight of the night, so expect the walkouts well after the 03:00 Riga main card start. Exact walkout times aren’t published.
How to watch: In the US the whole card is on Paramount+, which UFC.com lists as the broadcaster. Opened from Latvia, UFC.com’s event page points viewers to UFC Fight Pass, UFC’s own streaming service, for both the prelims and the main card.
