Karate Combat surprised the martial arts world with an unusual booking for Friday night’s event in Miami, signing top-ranked UFC heavyweight Valter Walker to grapple against Zion Clark, a man who has found success in wrestling competition despite the fact he was born with no legs due to a rare condition called caudal regression syndrome.
Clark and Walker will enter the Karate Combat pit at the Telemundo Center in Miami, Fla., for a 2-round, 5-minute openweight grappling match. They will go for an extra
round in case of a draw.
The idea for the match came in the aftermath of Walker’s fourth straight first-round heel hook submission in the UFC, tapping out Junior Tafa, Don’Tale Mayes, Kennedy Nzechukwu and Louie Sutherland in a span of 14 months. Clark said that people started tagging him on social media posts saying he was the one to beat Walker.
“Man, let me tell you, there’s not a crazier feeling in the world,” Clark told MMA Fighting. “I’m going up against the 14th-best heavyweight in the world. And here’s the thing, it just all stemmed from just some random dude just gaslighting both of us [laughs]. Dude, I got over like 20,000 mentions and was just people saying this should happen. Next thing you know, he’s DM’ing me and now it’s happening.”
Karate Combat president Asim Zaidi saw the buzz online and offered the match to both sides, and that’s how the deal was made for the Feb. 13 card.
“I immediately said, yeah, let’s do it. Let’s get it. I said, I ain’t scared of him [laughs],” Clark said. “The odds are honestly in his favor, but I’ve got God in my favor. I’m be honest with you. And I mean that. Just because I have been put through all these trials and tribulations, whatever. I don’t care where you’re from, who you are, what your background is. If we get in there and they lock us in, it’s go time.”
Walker, who mainly uses his social media page for humorous posts, has been all over the fact that he, a heel hook specialist, is now facing a man born with no legs. Walker maintained the humored tone while discussing the match-up in an interview with MMA Fighting.
“This fight has been very hard for me. Mentally, emotionally,” said Walker, pretending to be crying. “I don’t know what I’m going to do in this fight, you know? Because, like, he doesn’t have a foot. I only know how to attack the foot, you know? I don’t know what I’m going to do, man. If I lose, I’m going to lose to a disabled man, man. To a tree stump, you know? And people are going to start calling me trash again.”
“Sorry. It’s been very hard for me, you know?” he continued. “It’s been very hard because people are putting pressure on me. He’s disabled, and the fight is going to be in the United States. So if I beat him, I’m going to be the bad guy. If I lose to him, I’m trash. So it’s been very difficult for me emotionally.”
Clark is not particularly a fan of that kind of humor, though.
“I don’t think he’s funny,” Clark said. “Not really [bothers me], but I don’t think it’s funny. But at the same time, do what you do. Make your jokes. Whatever. We’re gonna see who’s laughing at the end of the night on Friday the 13th.”
“Everybody’s like, why is he talking all this shit? And what’s Zion going to do about it?” he continued. “Now everybody’s wondering what I’m going to do about it. You know what I mean? But here’s what I am going to do about it: exactly what I want. You know what mean? I don’t really got too much more to say rather than Valter better be counting his days right now.”
Walker is a 15-1 MMA fighter with five submissions to his credit. The sole submission of his career prior of his current heel hook run in the UFC was a rear-naked choke in 2020, back in his second professional bout in Moscow.
“I’m going to be forced to evolve, I’ll have to explore other parts of the body to get the win,” Walter jokingly said. “But I don’t know if I can, you know? I don’t know if I’m capable because that’s all I can do [because] I only go for the foot. My fear is not being able to win this fight. … I don’t want to fail. I can’t fail. My brother [Johnny Walker] will be in my corner. He just started talking to me again. He forgave me. Can you imagine, I lose to Zion right in front of my brother, just now that my brother is my brother again? But I don’t know if I’m capable. I only know how to attack the foot in grappling, and the guy doesn’t have a foot. They nerfed me.”
Jokes aside, Walker indeed needs to change things up as heel hooks aren’t an option this time around. Clark wrestled for the Kent State University and won his sole MMA bout in 2022, and has been training with heavier partners to prepare for a much larger opponent.
“I think he’s gonna try to snap my head down or do something crazy, but I’m already here ready for it,” Clark said. “I’ve been working a lot of really good defensive techniques. And I’ve been really just hunkering down and getting ready just to feel what the real pressure feels like training with guys that are 200 pounds, training with guys that are 150 to 285, just to get ready for that strength that I’m about to be going up against.”
Clark called himself a better wrestler and grappler, and vows to be “ready for war” inside the Karate Combat pit. The 28-year-old believes that the match will “open a giant door for my options” in the future, including grappling and wrestling matches against other UFC fighters, as well as MMA and boxing.
“It’s going to open the door for absolutely everything,” said Clark, who said he’s been in talks with freestyle wrestling promotion Real American Freestyle. “RAF actually invited me. I missed my flight, I’m gonna be honest [laughs]. We’re still negotiating that too.
“Obviously I’m an MMA guy and there’s a lot more money in that. But at the same time, if the RAF wants me to wrestle, me Thomas Gilman, I’m down for that too. You know what I’m saying? I’m ready for whatever the world wants to throw at me at this moment.”
Gilman is a three-time NCAA Division I All-American who has medalled three times in World Championships, placing first in 2021, and won bronze at the 2020 Olympics at 57kg.
“[I want Gilman] because we’re same weight class and I think that I could take him,” Clark said. “No disrespect to him, he’s been one of my favorite wrestlers to watch over the years. Like, honestly, I’m a fan of his, but I think that I have an opportunity to showcase that I’m at the same level.”
As for his MMA career, Clark is hopeful to book more fights for 2026 and “see where it takes us.”
“I’m gonna be real, I kinda walked through that one,” Clark said of his debut in 2022, when he defeated Eugene Murray (0-4) via decision. “I felt pretty good the entire fucking fight, you feel me? I just felt alive.”
“I do and I don’t [hope to be an inspiration], and I’m gonna tell you why,” he added. “I really am the only one that has gotten this far like this on planet earth. I’m the only one. But at the same time, I’m not because as much as inspiration it is, dog, I love to fight. You feel me? It’s just in my blood at this point. I’m gonna make this a generational thing at some point in my life.”
