Filed under: Strikeforce
SAN JOSE – As Herschel Walker took his seat among a lineup of vastly more experienced fighters at Thursday’s Strikeforce press conference, ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. – a man whose job requires him to work in hyperbole the way some artists work in oils – called him “the greatest athlete in the world.”
It’s the kind of statement that might get tossed out easily and maybe even thoughtlessly in all the megaphone barking of fight promotion, but the 48-year-old Walker, who’s been everything from an NFL running back to an Olympic bobsledder, doesn’t take it lightly.
“I don’t know whether I feel up to that,” Walker told MMA Fighting. “I think I’m a pretty good athlete, but there are a lot of good athletes out there. Even though I’ve done a lot of things and done them at the highest level, that’s a bold statement to make. I think it’s great to hear it, but I don’t know if you can ever really say it.”