Jamahal Hill vs. Johnny Walker promoted to UFC Vegas 48 main event

UFC Vegas 48 is now headlined by a light heavyweight fight between Jamahal Hill and Johnny Walker after the event’s originally scheduled headliner was postponed.

As MMA Fighting previously reported, Visa issues forced Rafael Fiziev to withdraw from the event, prompting the UFC to target his fight with ex-champ Rafael dos Anjos for UFC 272 in March. Hill vs. Walker originally was scheduled as a three-round fight in the co-main, but will now be bumped to a five-round fight in the main event. Ariel Helwani first reported the shift.

UFC Vegas 48 takes place Feb. 19 at UFC APEX in Las Vegas and airs on ESPN+.

Hill and Walker approach the bout on opposite sides of the win/loss coin. In his most recent appearance, Hill stopped Jim Crute via knockout, getting back on track after an elbow-popping armbar loss to Paul Craig in his previous outing.

Walker, once a red-hot prospect in the division, is in dire need of a turnaround with a 1-3 record in his past four outings. Most recently, he was outpointed by one-time title challenger Thiago Santos.