Johnny Walker arrived at the UFC in 2019 with a lot of hype, winning his first three fights in spectacular fashion: all via wild knockout, all earning him a Performance of the Night bonus. But things got wobbly from there. He’d win some, he’d lose some. He’d injure himself performing the worm.
Now he’s 1-3-1 over his last five and relegated to the early prelims of UFC 332 this Saturday, October 3rd where he faces 10-1 U.K. heavyweight Mick Parkin. Walker expects the move from light heavyweight to heavyweight to make
a big difference, based on how hard the cut was affecting his life and training camp.
“It’s weird because I usually suffer a lot,” Walker told MMA Fighting’s Jose Youngs. “It’s not hard, but it’s a lot of work that I have to do for light heavyweight. And now it’s just normal life.”
“When I was light heavyweight, one month before the fight, like the last three weeks where you can train, I couldn’t,” Walker revealed. “I’d have when you feel everything [going] dark, like ‘Wait, wait, wait.’ In the middle of a spar, we’d have to wait. It’s not my heart and it’s not my breath. It’s just everything’s getting dark. Like [buzzing noise in ears] and dizzy. And then let’s go, back to sparring. It’s crazy, no?”
“Now I can train strong until the last week. Even this week I can train with somebody. I don’t need [to wait] any more. I’m ready, just technique. I do the strategy, the technique. Nothing hurts and nothing is depleted. Without glycogen. I have full glycogen in my body. I’m ready to perform, so I’m really excited to put the show on.”
Walker’s heavyweight debut was originally set to go down August 1st in Belgrade, but an injury to his opponent has given him two more months to settle into the weight class. We’ll see how the new division looks on him when he faces Parkin this Saturday in Salt Lake City, Utah.
