Official weigh-ins for UFC Vegas 124 opened Friday at noon ET at Meta APEX in Las Vegas. UFC.com is posting the weights live throughout the session. As of this writing, the promotion had not posted the official numbers for heavyweights Waldo Cortes-Acosta and Johnny Walker, so nobody should treat the main event as locked until both names show up on that page. The 13-fight card goes Saturday, November 7, with prelims at 5 p.m. ET and the main card at 8 p.m. ET, all on Paramount+ in the U.S.
This headliner was never the plan. Sean Brady was supposed to fight Gabriel Bonfim at the top of the card, but Brady was forced out with an injury, MMA Fighting reported. The UFC moved Cortes-Acosta, the No. 6 ranked heavyweight, into a short-notice main event against Walker. The quick turnaround is the remarkable part. UFC Brasil pointed out on X that Walker fought exactly one month ago and won by knockout, so he’s walking right back into a five-round slot with almost no gap between camps. Walker also made news earlier this week when asked whether he’d ever fight his brother Valter Walker in the UFC. His answer, per MMA Fighting: “I’m not that crazy.”
The co-main has real stakes at 115 pounds. Virna Jandiroba and Tatiana Suarez, both Top 5 strawweights, meet with each trying to build a case for a shot at champion Mackenzie Dern. Below that, the main card runs Davey Grant vs. Elijah Smith, Billy Elekana vs. Lucas Fernando, Priscila Cachoeira vs. Nina Milosevic and Mitch Raposo vs. Marcos Degli.
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The four-day replacement
The scale story I’m watching most closely is on the prelims. Austin Bashi (14-2) lost his original opponent, Lucas Brennan, to a torn ACL. MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck confirmed that Fury FC featherweight champion Carlos Calderon (11-4, 1 NC) took the fight on four days’ notice. Bashi’s UFC run since he signed off Dana White’s Contender Series in 2024 has been bumpy. He lost his unbeaten record to Christian Rodriguez, bounced back with a first-round submission of John Yannis, then dropped a decision to Jose Delgado in July. Calderon debuts on a three-fight win streak, 5-1 in his last six. His most recent win was his first Fury FC title defense, a five-round unanimous decision over Lorram Esteves in October.
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The rest of the prelims: Keiichiro Nakamura vs. Ollie Schmid, Karine Silva vs. Gabriella Fernandes, Jose Delano vs. Murtazali Magomedov, Mantas Kondratavicius vs. Andre Petroski, Seokhyon Ko vs. Wellington Turman and Jonny Parsons vs. Jose Souza.
My take: I’m not worried about the heavyweights making the 265-pound limit. I’m worried about the guy who had four days to get his body ready for an official scale. A short-notice debut lives or dies on the cut, and if Calderon makes weight and still looks fresh on Saturday, Bashi is in a much tougher fight than the one he signed for. Up top, I lean Walker. Fighters coming off a knockout one month earlier tend to carry real momentum, and short-notice main events reward the guy who never stopped training.
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