Johnny Walker spent fight week hearing that Waldo Cortes-Acosta was going to put him to sleep. Then he stopped Cortes-Acosta with a third-round TKO in the main event of UFC Vegas 124 on Saturday, and he used the post-fight press conference to tell the doubters exactly where they could put their opinions.
Walker said the overwhelming majority of fans have been good to him, but a small, loud slice of them gets under his skin. “In reality, 99 percent of the fan base, they are amazing,” Walker said, per MMA Junkie. “But I don’t know how 1 percent have such power when they talk sh*t.”
His main gripe is that the loudest critics have never been in there. “They never took a punch. They never train really hard. They have no idea what they’re talking about, but they are there talking sht about you if you get knocked out,” he said. He added that he hoped the win gave those people a reason to “stop talking sht, bro.”
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How He Got Here
The turnaround here was quick. Walker (24-10 MMA, 10-7 UFC) spent years as a fixture at light heavyweight before moving up, and his heavyweight debut came just last month at UFC 332, where he knocked out Mick Parkin in the first round. Instead of resting, he took a short-notice call to headline UFC Fight Night 293 against Cortes-Acosta (17-5 MMA, 10-5 UFC), a top contender. Walker went off as a decent-sized underdog, with plenty of people expecting him to get knocked out. He’s now 2-0 at heavyweight with two finishes.
Walker pointed out that Cortes-Acosta had never been finished before. He also admitted he left something on the table. “I just have to trust a little bit more,” he said. “Because I could finish him early.” He promised a sharper version next time, regardless of who’s standing across from him. “Whoever it is, the champion, the No. 1 or 2, whatever. I’m going to finish them,” Walker said.
As for timing, he asked for a breather. He said the Parkin fight ended fast and didn’t cost him much, but this one involved eating some punches and throwing enough kicks that his foot will be sore. He still left the door open, saying that if the UFC wants him next week, “let’s go. No problem.”
Sal’s Take
I’ll defend the doubters a little, because a 34-fight record with 10 losses on it is going to invite chin talk, and pricing a 205er as the dog against a top heavyweight he took on short notice was a reasonable read on paper. But the market whiffed. Walker ate shots from a heavyweight who’d never been stopped, kept firing kicks, and finished him in Round 3. Fighting twice in a month at short notice is the kind of schedule I normally hate betting into, and he cashed both times anyway. The next oddsmaker who lists him as a sizable underdog against a ranked heavyweight is going to get a phone call from me, and it won’t be to complain.
