Tonight’s main card clash at light heavyweight between Johnny Walker and former title challenger, Magomed Ankalaev has ended in the most bizarre of circumstances, with the bout judged an official ‘No Contest’, after the Octagon-side physician ruled Johnny Walker unable to continue after he received an unintentional illegal knee strike from Ankalaev in their UFC 294 showdown.
Returning to the Octagon for the first time since he fought to a controversial draw result in his vacant light heavyweight title fight with Jan Blachowicz back in December of last year, Russian contender, Ankalaev was almost caught with a jump-knee strike from a possum-playing Walker, resulting in a grappling scramble.
And forcing a stoppage in the action, Ankalaev landed an unintentional knee strike on a downed, Walker, with referee, Dan Movahedi stepping in and separating the duo.
Requiring time to gather himself following the heavy illegal blow, Walker was the subject to a concussion test by the Octagon-side physician, who quickly determined that the Brazilian was unable to continue to fight, after he apparently failed to answer questions regarding the location of their fight, or which round they were currently fighting in.
And as a result, Ankalaev’s return against Walker ends in an official first round ‘No Contest’ — despite the pair’s best efforts to try and fight despite the referee waving off the bout.