It’s been a rough several years for once-shining prospect Johnny Walker, whose athleticism and creativity in the cage made him a fan favorite. He’s 4-5-1 over his last ten fights in the UFC, and he keeps on ending up on the wrong end of nasty knockouts.
For a long time Walker was a bit of a ronin, travelling from gym to gym without a home. Then he settled at SBG Ireland, which seemed like a winning combination at first. But recent negative results have pushed Walker to Las Vegas where he was working with XTreme Couture for his UFC 311 fight against Bogdan Guskov.
“At SBG, I had just one training partner,” he told MMA Junkie in a recent interview. “Here in Vegas, I have the UFC PI for strength and conditioning, for nutrition, for recovery. At Xtreme Couture, I have high-level guys between top 10 and top 15. Light heavyweight and heavyweight, and Sean Strickland. Every day I have a high-level guy to train with. You need challenges, and now at Xtreme, I have that challenge.”
UFC 311 was going to be the coming out party for the new Johnny Walker, but a rib injury took him out as the event neared.
“It was nothing stupid,” he said of the injury. “I was doing the last sparring, very technical, timing. I wasn’t trying to hurt anybody. It was hard sparring, but very conscious. I was trying to get out of a jiu jitsu position and throw myself, like a normal thing, and then I felt my ribs pop. I said, ‘OK, stop, stop, stop.’ I think something happened to my ribs. Then I tried to keep fighting, I stood up again, started moving. I was like, ‘Wait, something’s wrong.’
“I had to stop to check what happened so it doesn’t get worse. Then I got an X-ray the next day. The UFC got the results, and then they pulled me out after that. They knew how bad the injury was.”
According to Walker, he’s stuck waiting four to six weeks for the ribs to heal and hopes to get rebooked for another fight in April or May. Despite the setback, he’s confident the move to Las Vegas will pay off.
“I have everything now for recovery, for nutrition, for training, coaching,” he said. “Now the light heavyweights are in trouble. Now you’re going to have the best version of Johnny Walker because I’m just going to be better. Now my career is going to fly.”
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
