{"id":765742,"date":"2026-06-28T12:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T12:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/765742\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T12:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T12:59:09","slug":"ufc-baku-fighters-ko-prediction-backfires-horribly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/765742\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC Baku Fighter\u2019s KO Prediction Backfires Horribly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Light Heavyweight Julius Walker got sparked in just eight seconds by Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev on the UFC Baku prelims<\/a> yesterday (Sat., June 27, 2026) inside National Gymnastics Arena in Baku, Azerbaijan (watch highlights<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The finish was the seventh-fastest overall in UFC history and the second-fastest knockout in Light Heavyweight history.
Brutal.
But what makes the loss even more painful is what Walker said four days before the fight.<\/p>\n

During an interview with YouTuber Carlo Perruzza, Walker was asked what the perfect outcome would be for UFC Baku.<\/p>\n

\u201cDude, in a perfect world, I knock him out with the first punch,\u201d Walker said. \u201cI throw a jab, and it just decapitates him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, that aged horribly.<\/p>\n

In a complete twist of irony, Walker was knocked out by the first punch Yakhyaev threw in the fight. Technically, the first punch flash-knocked him out, and then Yakhyaev followed up with a few more ground-and-pound shots before the referee jumped in.<\/p>\n

Walker reflected on the loss a few hours after UFC Baku wrapped, admitting the result was tough to process.<\/p>\n

\u201cUFC Baku was an incredible experience despite it ending with one of the worst possible results,\u201d Walker wrote. \u201cObviously, I am extremely disappointed with getting KO\u2019d in 8 seconds. After the fight I couldn\u2019t stop thinking about how much went into me going out there and getting dropped with the first punch. My family went 2 months without me, my sponsors invested heavily in me, my team and my coaches spent hours preparing me and traveling to be here. It\u2019s hard to wrap my head around the fact that it was all for an 8-second fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in reality, that\u2019s not the case,\u201d Walker continued. \u201cI grew as a fighter and as a man more in this camp than any one I\u2019ve had before. Although I didn\u2019t get to show them, I know I am twice the fighter I was 2 months ago. I\u2019ve preached about being process-oriented over results oriented, and now I have no choice but to take my own advice. This sport can be cruel, but I won\u2019t let this result take away from the fact that I know I have improved, and I have so much to build on. I am far from done, turning 27 in a few weeks, a little over 3 years into my pro MMA career, and I started this sport from 0, a little under 7 years ago. I\u2019ll be back to work as soon as possible, but first I will take some much needed time with my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walker (7-3) is now riding the first two-fight losing streak of his career and falls to 1-3 inside the Octagon.<\/p>\n

For more UFC Baku results, coverage and highlights click HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Light Heavyweight Julius Walker got sparked in just eight seconds by Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396,179146,6656,355513],"class_list":["post-765742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-ufc-results","tag-ufc-mma-social-media-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}