Through his promotional channels, UFC said the first event of the year will take place on January 14. It was the time to witness the rematch between Magomed Ankalaev and Johnny Walker. More notably, this announcement was officially released by UFC in less than a week before the match was held.
The schedule was released close to UFC's competition, causing both boxers to not have time to prepare as desired. However, Johnny Walker does not suffer as much as Magomed Ankalaev. Russian boxers have received unpleasant results from the UFC arena for more than 1 year.
In December 2022, at UFC 282, Magomed Ankalaev painted belt with Jan Blachowicz. The three arbitrators graded these matches offered 3 different results for Ankalaev (1 win, 1 draw, 1 loss), even though he was a slightly better competition. Nearly a year later, Ankalaev was not arranged by UFC to play another battle.
In October 2023, Ankalaev had the opportunity to continue playing. His opponent at UFC 294 is Johnny Walker. The match was canceled in the first half, when the referees said Ankalaev accidentally launched an attack on the pillow illegally, making Walker not guaranteeing health to play.
For Johnny Walker, Ankalaev rematch is a real dream of this boxer. During the time, Walker seemed to have lost the opportunity to compete with leading boxers when losing 4/5 matches at UFC in the period of 2019-2022. However, 3 consecutive victories of Walker, as well as many of the same fighters, had a problem that brought him to the first group.