UFC Fight Night: Walker vs. Zhang
Mixed martial arts event in 2025
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
UFC Fight Night: Walker vs. Zhang (also known as UFC Fight Night 257 and UFC on ESPN+ 115) was a mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that took place on August 23, 2025, at the Shanghai Indoor Stadium in Shanghai, China.[2]
| UFC Fight Night: Walker vs. Zhang | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
The poster for UFC Fight Night: Walker vs. Zhang | ||||
| Promotion | Ultimate Fighting Championship | |||
| Date | August 23, 2025 | |||
| Venue | Shanghai Indoor Stadium | |||
| City | Shanghai, China | |||
| Attendance | Not announced[1] | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
| ||||
Background
The event marked the promotion's second visit to Shanghai and first since UFC Fight Night: Bisping vs. Gastelum in November 2017. It was also the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic that the UFC has returned to Mainland China.[2] The promotion was originally expected to make their return to the location at UFC Fight Night: Song vs. Gutiérrez in December 2023, before moving that event to Las Vegas due to undisclosed reasons.[3]
A light heavyweight bout between Johnny Walker and Zhang Mingyang headlined this event.[4]
A catchweight bout between former UFC Featherweight Championship challenger Brian Ortega and former UFC Bantamweight Champion Aljamain Sterling took place in a five round co-headliner.[5] Originally slated as a featherweight bout, it was changed to a catchweight of 153 pounds after reports that Ortega had complications during his weight cut.[6]
Shi Ming and Bruna Brasil were expected to meet in a women's strawweight bout at the event.[7] However, the pairing was pulled in order to serve as the featured bout of the Road to UFC Season 4 semifinals event a day earlier.[8]
A welterweight bout between Song Kenan and Kiefer Crosbie was scheduled for this event.[9] However, Song withdrew from the fight for unknown reasons and was replaced by promotional newcomer Taiyilake Nueraji.[10]
In addition, a middleweight bout between Michel Pereira and Marco Tulio was also scheduled for this event.[11] However, Tulio withdrew from the fight for unknown reasons and was replaced by returning veteran Kyle Daukaus.[10]
Results
| Main card (ESPN+) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight class | Method | Round | Time | Notes | |||
| Light Heavyweight | Johnny Walker | def. | Zhang Mingyang | TKO (leg kicks and punches) | 2 | 2:37 | |
| Catchweight (153 lb) | Aljamain Sterling | def. | Brian Ortega | Decision (unanimous) (50–45, 50–45, 50–45) | 5 | 5:00 | |
| Heavyweight | Sergei Pavlovich | def. | Waldo Cortes-Acosta | Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 29–28, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Flyweight | Su Mudaerji | def. | Kevin Borjas | Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 30–27) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Welterweight | Taiyilake Nueraji | def. | Kiefer Crosbie | TKO (elbows) | 1 | 3:33 | [a] |
| Preliminary card (ESPN+) | |||||||
| Lightweight | Gauge Young | def. | Maheshate Hayisaer | Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 29–28, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Flyweight | Charles Johnson | def. | Lone'er Kavanagh | KO (punch) | 2 | 4:35 | |
| Lightweight | Rong Zhu | def. | Austin Hubbard | Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 29–28, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Middleweight | Kyle Daukaus | def. | Michel Pereira | KO (punches and elbows) | 1 | 0:43 | |
| Featherweight | Yi Zha | def. | Westin Wilson | KO (punches) | 1 | 0:37 | |
| Bantamweight | You Su-young | def. | Xiao Long | Decision (unanimous) (29–28, 29–28, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Light Heavyweight | Uran Satybaldiev | def. | Diyar Nurgozhay | Submission (Ezekiel choke) | 1 | 2:45 | |
- Nueraji was deducted two points in round 1 due to an illegal knee.
Bonus awards
The following fighters received $50,000 bonuses.[13]
- Fight of the Night: No bonus awarded.
- Performance of the Night: Johnny Walker, Charles Johnson, Kyle Daukaus, and Uran Satybaldiev