UFC Fight Night 178 Odds: Johnny Walker vs. Ryan Spann Prediction

Jeremy Perry
Last Updated: September 17, 2020

The UFC is back this Saturday for another card in Las Vegas. UFC Fight Night 178 will be headlined by the Colby Covington-Tyron Woodley matchup but we’ve got a number of intriguing bouts on the card. One of those will be the Johnny Walker-Ryan Spann showdown, which is expected to be quite close, according to the oddsmakers. Let’s take a closer look at that bout and see who has the edge.

UFC Vegas 11 Odds: Johnny Walker vs. Ryan Spann

Date: Saturday, September 19th, 2020 – 10:05 PM ET

Location: UFC APEX Arena – Las Vegas, Nevada

Johnny Walker -190
Ryan Spann +120

Johnny Walker

Johnny Walker is currently ranked No. 11 in the Light Heavyweight division but he’s coming into Saturday’s fight on a downer. He’s lost two in a row, including a bout to Nikita Krylov at UFC Fight Night: Lee vs Oliveira in March and Corey Anderson at UFC 244 in November. He had won nine straight fights before that and was viewed as a fighter on the rise. The two losses have dulled his momentum – especially the first-round knockout by Anderson.

Walker has big hands himself and prefers to keep fights standing. He has 17 wins in his career and 14 are by knockout. He hasn’t been in the UFC for very long – just under three years – but three of his four UFC wins are by knockout. The Brazilian will have to do his best to keep this standing as his opponent is going to try and take this down to the ground. The fighter who is able to dictate the style is likely going to win.

Ryan Spann

Ryan Spann might be the underdog in this bout but when you take a look at his recent track record, a lot of bettors might be interested in investing in him. After all, he’s now won eight fights in a row and hasn’t lost since July of 2017. The issue with Spann might be the competition. Sure, he’s won all four of his UFC bouts but his wins have come against Luis Henrique, Devin Clark, Sam Alvey and an over-the-hill Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. Only one of those was via knockout but two were by submission, so he is good at finishing his fights.

Spann has 18 wins on his resume but just four of them are via knockout. Typically, he’s submitting opponents as 11 of those 18 wins have come via tapouts.

A lot of people had high hopes for Walker but his last two losses have exposed him. For Spann, he probably feels like he’s got a great shot here as he knows what he has to do. As long as he doesn’t try and win this fight standing, he should be able to pull this out. It’s just a matter of whether Walker can defend the takedowns.