Johnny Walker exploded onto the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) scene in 2018, and he hasn’t looked back since. The Brazilian bomber has racked up three straight knockout wins, all in the first round totaling a fight time of 168 seconds.
See some of his handy work here and here.
As one of the fastest rising contenders at Light Heavyweight, Walker is an upcoming threat to division champion Jon Jones. And though he knows he has to get a few more wins under his belt, he is ready to take on any and all comers to get to a title fight. And that includes the Heavyweights, in particular No. 1 contender, Francis Ngannou.
“I’d like to impress the fans by beating Francis Ngannou. He’s a machine,” Walker said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “He impressed so many people with his punching power, the way he finishes his fights. People is scared to fight him. I’m not scared to fight him.”
With three straight knockouts on his resume, Walker – who is one of the bigger Light Heavyweights in the game – says he just about has the same punching power as “The Predator.”
If not more.
“We have the same punching power. I did the test at the UFC Performance Institute. I was coming off a surgery and almost did the number he did, so I have the same power or even more. I can definitely defeat him,” he added.
Still, a matchup against Francis is unlikely at the moment, as “The Predator” is next in line to fight for the 265-pound title. That means that Walker will have to keep doing his thing at 205 pounds in hopes of getting to “Bones.”
“I think I’ll have to fight two more times before fighting (Jones), so I’ll get things going in any division,” he continued. “If they need a fight at heavyweight, I’m in. I don’t choose opponents,” he added.
“I’ll fight anyone. I don’t care if it’s a top 10, a top 20, a top 2. It’s just a regular human being that will get beat up the same way,” he concluded.