UFC on ESPN+ 59: Johnny Walker vs Jamahal Hill - Card Preview - 2/19/22
We’re back at the Apex Centre in Vegas for Fight Night 201 (UFC on ESPN+ 59) this Saturday, February 19th. The original headlining fight was Rafael dos Anjos and Rafael Fiziev, but that one got moved to UFC 272 due to some visa issues. In it's place, we have two light heavyweight strikers in the form of Johnny Walker and Jamahal Hill taking the spotlight. The judges have been removed from the equation on 9 out of 12 combined UFC fights between these two, so this one has a lot of promise for fireworks. Walker alone has only gone to the judges 3 times in his 24 pro fights. His high action striking offense combined with his lackadaisical striking defense/suspect chin has made him a kill or be killed kind of fighter that you really don’t want to miss. Shockingly enough, his last fight with Thiago Santos (also a knockout savage) went the full 25 minutes. Walker ended up on the wrong side of the decision for that one so he'll look to get back in the win column Saturday.
Jamahal Hill is coming off a Performance of the Night win with a knockout over Australian prospect, Jimmy Crute. He also holds TKO finishes over Ovince St. Preux and Klidson Abreu. His one UFC defeat occurred when he got finished by Paul Craig in the bout before the Crute fight. This will be the first taste of the main event limelight for “Sweet Dreams”.
The rest of the card is more condensed with not much offered in terms of rankings or title implications, but there’s still a few good fights on there. The main card for the most part looks pretty decent. The co-main event has Kyle Daukaus and Jamie Pickett, and further down you’ll see Jim Miller making his 39th UFC appearance. He unsurprisingly, currently holds the record for most UFC fights. The last fight I’d like to highlight is Joaquin Buckley and Abdul Razak Alhassan. All 5 of Buckley’s UFC fights have ended by some form of knockout (3 in favor, 2 against), with one of those knockouts being the KO of the year when his spinning back kick landed flush to short circuit Impa Kasanganay. Alhassan is coming off of a head kick knockout victory over Alessio Di Chirico as well.
We’ll have predictions and breakdowns for this card later in the week as well as a deep dive into the card from a betting perspective. As it stands of this writing, the lineup looks like the following:
Main Card
Johnny Walker vs Jamahal Hill
Kyle Daukaus vs Jamie Pickett
Parker Porter vs Alan Baudot
Jim Miller vs Nikolas Motta
Joaquin Buckley vs Abdul Razak Alhassan
Preliminary Card
Jonathan Pearce vs Christian Rodriguez
Mario Bautista vs Khalid Taha
Gabriel Benítez vs David Onama
Jessica-Rose Clark vs Stephanie Egger
Chas Skelly vs Mark Striegl
Diana Belbiţă vs Gloria de Paula
Chad Anheliger vs Jesse Strader