The Brazilian light heavyweight sounds more committed than ever to climbing the ranks and claiming the title after a disappointing loss at last weekend’s Apex event.
Johnny Walker has released a statement following his disappointing second round TKO loss to Magomed Ankalaev in the main event of UFC Vegas 84.
Walker was his usual dynamic self through the first round, firing off wild spinning attacks. None of them landed with much power, but he was keeping Ankalaev from imposing his game. Something shifted in the second round, though. Gone were the constant attacks. Instead, Ankalaev stalked Walker, who got stuck circling to the left endlessly.
Things ended when Ankalaev darted in and attacked, stunning Walker with a punch to the side of the head that dropped the Brazilian fighter. A follow-up punch on the ground broke Walker’s nose (see the finish here), and the ref stepped in to stop the fight at 2:42 of round two.
Now Walker has recorded a message for his fans on Instagram.
“Win or learn, right, coach!” the video caption read. “Fighting the best in the world, one little mistake cost the win. You don’t make me so you can’t break me, you didn’t build me so you can’t kill me! Let’s keep climbing.”
“I’m good, just a little scratch on my nose,” he said in the video, with his wife by his side. “I gonna watch my fight, I wanna see what mistakes I did a little later on and I’m gonna put on my YouTube channel here the recalculations to see what I did wrong and talk more about the fight.”
“It is what it is, we fight the best in the world,” Walker continued. “I’m one of the best in the world, they’re gonna face the best in the world. Could be me, could be him. So he had a better night than me, congratulations to him, Magomed Ankalaev. I hope he get the belt now. And I’m gonna keep grinding, keep grinding and going for wars, going upward. Thanks everyone for the sport and I’m gonna take a few days off then come back to the gym, come back better.”
The loss to Ankalaev snaps a three-fight unbeaten streak for Walker, but it’s not all bad news. Apparently his performance was strong enough to push his light heavyweight ranking up one spot from No. 8 to No. 7. … upward!
Magomed Ankalaev remains at No. 3, just behind Jiri Prochazka, Jamahal Hill, and champion Alex Pereira.