UFC light heavyweight Julius Walker hoped to make up for losing his UFC debut in February when he faced Rafael Cerqueria at UFC Vegas 109 on Saturday night.
Walker (6-1) took on a veteran Alonzo Menifield in February on short-notice and came up short by split-decision. Looking at the silver lining he took on a very experienced fighter and barely lost. One could consider his fight with Cerqueria his real UFC debut.
Cerqueria (11-2) dropped his first two UFC bout losing to Ibo Aslan and Modestas Bukauskas. Still he wasn’t one to walk away from a challenge and he took on the young Walker at the UFC APEX.
Round 1 – Cerqueria came out with a leg kick and Walker came at him with a flurry to which Cerqueria landed a nasty 1-2 in return. Getting after it early in the fight Cerqueria went in for the clinch, Walker turned him and landed knees to the body.
Cerqueria got off the fence and got back to it with Walker. Walker shot in for a takedown, got it, and took his back pretty quick with just under 3 minutes left in the round.
He did get back to his feet for a moment, but Walker was already setting the mat return up and got it. Cerqueria went to his back to defend the rear naked choke, Walker got the kimura grip, but was too close to the fence to finish it.
Back to the feet and Cerqueria went to his own takedown attempt off the rip and instead got taken down again.
Round 2 – Cerqueria got a bit too aggressive and Walker used a leg kick to take him down quick. Walker was on top in full guard with barely 25 seconds off the clock in the round. Not a great start to round 2 for Cerqueria.
Cerqueria got his back on the fence to try and wall walk, but Walker was active landing shots on him. Cerqueria got back to his feet and they got back to striking, but Walker landed a big left hand and scored another takedown.
Round 3 Cerqueria hurt Walker so bad that Walker shot in for multiple takedowns and got stuffed. Suddenly Walker landed a shot on Cerqueria that hurt him. The two brawled for another minute with Walker looking done and Cerqueria gassing himself out to finish the fight.
Finally Walker got him down and began controlling the position again. That was it for the rest of the fight that went to the judges.
After a wild three rounds Walker walked away with a hard-earned decision victory and a whole lot of experience to learn from.
Official Result: Julius Walker def. Rafael Cerqueria via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-28)
