Corey Anderson confirms Walker did not taunt him backstage prior to UFC 244

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Corey Anderson admits Johnny Walker did not taunt him backstage prior to UFC 244.

It looks like Dan Hardy owes Johnny Walker an apology.

In a UFC 244 post-fight show with BT Sport, ‘The Outlaw’ claimed Walker taunted Anderson backstage for five minutes straight just moments before their light heavyweight clash at Madison Square Garden, where Anderson TKO’d Walker in the first round and chose to celebrate in style.

“For five minutes or ten minutes all the time before the fight, Johnny Walker was going “Corey, I’m going to knock you out, I’m going to knock you out. So basically he was marinating in this annoyance for five or ten minutes before the fight,” Hardy said.

Walker, however, vehemently denied those claims and demanded an apology from Hardy for spreading false information, but the Brit was reluctant to apologize.

“The fact that you do taunt people, as you did when Corey pinged you with that first punch, makes it all the more believable. If you didn’t, then I apologize for sharing false information. I had no reason to believe it wasn’t true at the time though,” Hardy responded on Sunday.

Anderson, who has since apologized to Walker for his uncharacteristic post-fight behavior, put the issue to rest when he responded to the Brazilian on Instagram,

The 30-year-old confirmed Walker was innocent and admitted that a fan screamed at him backstage.

“Johnny didn’t say anything to me in the tunnel,” Anderson posted on Instagram. “It was a fan behind him on the other side of the curtain screaming that for 5-10. Thank you again for the battle warrior.”

Hardy hasn’t purposely tried to tarnish Walker’s image, obviously, but the former UFC welterweight title challenger owes him an apology nonetheless. Perhaps both men will choose to settle this dispute in private.