While Light Heavyweight is his home for now (and the next few years), Walker believes he’s just too big to stay at 205 pounds forever.
While Johnny Walker hasn’t had the best of luck in the past, he’s hoping a productive year against the top fighters at 205 pounds will lead him to a title shot in 2024. He plans on winning the 205-pound belt, becoming a “great champion” and eventually capturing a championship at Heavyweight, too.
“My future is going to be Heavyweight,” Walker said during UFC Vegas 84 media day (watch it here). “I have size, I have power, so 100 percent, in a few years, I’m going to end up at heavyweight.”
Walker faces off against Magomed Ankalaev in UFC Vegas 84’s main event this weekend (Sat., Jan. 13, 2024) inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. It’s a rematch of their controversial “No Contest” from UFC 294 back in Oct. 2023, where Ankalaev kneed a grounded Walker to the face illegally. Walker was willing to continue, but the cageside physician didn’t like the look (or sound) of him.
With the benefit of four months hindsight, Walker now appreciates that call.
“The doctor has to take the smart decision for you, because we’re never going to take the smart decision,” Walker said. “We always want to fight. I want to fight, it doesn’t matter if we’re bleeding, cut. I am glad today because when I look back, one week after the fight, I feel my neck locked up, my collarbone a little bit inflamed. I received a big impact on my jaw. It was like a car crash.
“If I come back to the fight, 100 percent I’m going to be disadvantaged because I absorbed all the energy already, but we don’t feel because we are tough,” Walker continued. “I’m glad the doctor took the smart decision for me at the time. If I kept going, I’d have been disadvantaged.”
Walker comes into “Sin City” on a three-fight unbeaten streak, and is looking forward to fighting all the top names at 205 pounds.
“100 percent I’m going to face these guys,” he said. “All of these guys are going to be in my way one day. It’s going to happen because there’s no other way. The greatest will match up with each other. There’s no easy work anymore. The Top Five is all hard work, and I love hard work, cuz I work hard every day.”
Ankalaev enters the cage on a nine-fight unbeaten streak, with his last defeat coming to Paul Craig via last-second (literally) Hail Mary submission back in 2018 (watch highlights). He sounds locked in and ready to finish this chapter with Walker, so the bout will definitely be anything but easy.
Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Vegas 84 fight card right here, starting with the ESPN+ “Prelims” matches, which are scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. ET, then the remaining main card balance (also on ESPN+) at 7 p.m. ET.
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