UFC Abu Dhabi will be crucial for rising heavyweight prospect Valter Walker, who closes in on the top of the division on a four-fight finishing streak. For that, however, he wants to be paid accordingly.
Walker tapped out Junior Tafa, Don’Tale Mayes, Kennedy Nzechukwu, and Louie Sutherland in a span of 14 months, all in the first round, and now takes on Thomas Petersen on July 25. After a long layoff to recover from a broken leg, an injury suffered against Sutherland, Walker wants to waste no time on the sidelines and get a quick turnaround on the next Abu Dhabi show — likely in October.
“If everything goes well, I’ll get through this fight and renegotiate my contract,” Walker told MMA Fighting. “My next contract will be a generous one, and then I’ll fight ranked opponents. I’ll be honest with you guys, it’s not that I’m afraid of fighting ranked guys. I train with good guys, ranked guys. The thing is, I don’t want to fight ranked opponents while making little money. If I can fight unranked guys for little money, okay. But once I’m making better money, then fighting ranked guys makes sense. I’m not stupid. I’m not going to fight a guy who has a chance to knock me out for peanuts. But for good money, money where even if I lose I’ll still feel the difference, then it’s worth it. With the money I was making before, if I lost, it just didn’t make sense to me.”
Walker, who volunteered to take on either Josh Hokit or Gable Steveson next in the UFC, will have one bout left on his current UFC deal after Petersen, which makes this upcoming clash a defining moment for his upcoming negotiations with the company.
“If I lose, I know they won’t renegotiate it,’ Walker said. “This fight is really important for me to win because I know it’s my chance to move up a level in the organization, to move up financially. That’s why this victory is so important to me.
“I have to win, man, because if I lose, I’m screwed,” he continued. “I’m opening my gym in Moscow. The money from this fight, if I lose, is all going into the gym because I’ve already spent it. I won’t even [see] it. If I win, I’ll have enough money to support myself for about six months and open the gym. If I lose, I’m screwed. I’ll only be able to open the gym, and then I’ll have to figure out a way to fight again next week or something. My plan was to buy myself some time and run out my contract. It worked out, man. If I can do it, why wouldn’t I?”
Walker was on a roll in the UFC with four straight heel hook finishes, feeling loved by fans and promotion, and was “pissed off” he had to sit out for so long to heal from the leg injury. He sees the silver lining in not being that hyped in return, though.
“I used to care about [hype], but not so much these days,” Walker said. “My hype has cooled off a lot. But what I did is really hard for someone else to do again, so people still have that whole ‘foot hunter’ thing going on. People still stop me on the street asking for pictures.
“But honestly, it was good that things cooled off, because when people start kissing your ass and putting you on a pedestal, you kind of start losing your essence, you know? I felt like I was kind of losing myself in all that. It was good that I broke my leg, got myself back together, let my hype die down. I looked at who the important people in my life really are, looked at what actually matters and what I need to do. It was good, it really was. When you’re caught up in all that hype and attention from fans, everything kind of happens on autopilot. People keep hanging around you, kissing your ass, and you just keep opening the door. I don’t really hang out with many people anymore these days. I’m not opening the door for just anyone anymore.
“We’re regular guys,” he continued. “We train, and we’re good at something. There’s nothing special about us. If I lose on Saturday and get my ass kicked, a lot of people are going to say I’m trash, you know? There’s nothing special about us. We’re just another athlete making money to support our family. I’m a simple guy. I think that pedestal people put you on is a huge illusion. I don’t think I’m fooled by that anymore.”
The 28-year-old heavyweight said he expects Peterson to kick his leg in an attempt to hurt it again, and guarantees he’s ready to counter a boring game plan. As for his trademark heel hooks, it remains to be seen if he will go for the fifth in a row.
“What can he do? Kick the leg I broke, which he’s good at?” Walker said. “He does that well, switches stances and throws leg kicks. That’s what I think he’s planning to do. He throws a jab and an overhand. Pin me against the cage and just kill time to win on points. He doesn’t have a knockout in the UFC. He doesn’t have a submission. What he does is put guys against the fence and hold them there. I’m ready for that.”
“Believe it or not, I don’t go into fights planning to attack the leg,” he continued. “It’s just something I do well, and guys give me the opportunity, so I get it. I’m not planning that for this fight… If I see an opportunity to attack the leg, I’ll take it. If I see I can dive on the leg, I’ll do it. In my last fight I wanted to stand and trade, but it didn’t work out [laughs]. [Sutherland] kicked me, I checked it wrong, and my leg ended up breaking. In this fight I’m going to try standing and trading for two or three minutes because I need experience inside the octagon. I need to feel that adrenaline of exchanging punches. I still don’t have that experience in the UFC, you know?”
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