Valter Walker is scheduled to face Marcin Tybura at UFC Seattle on March 28, a 154-day turnaround from an October victory over Louie Sutherland, but revealed that his leg still isn’t fully recovered from an injury suffered that night in Abu Dhabi.
Walker made short work of Zion Clark in a grappling match recently in Miami and re-enters the octagon in just over a month, and admitted prior to his Karate Combat assignment that a fibula fracture is still concerning. The injury was caused by a calf kick thrown by Sutherland during UFC 321.
“I can train alright but the leg hurts,” Walker told MMA Fighting recently. “It hasn’t recovered 100 percent. By March, [the doctor] said it should be recovered. We’ll see. I train every day. But injuries are serious. I wouldn’t wish any kind of injury on any athlete. It’s very difficult and complicated. The recovery is long, a stressful and time-consuming process. It’s complicated, but what can you do? It’s our job.”
The injury wasn’t a problem for Karate Combat, but Walker now expects to have “two targets” when he faces the top 15 ranked heavyweight veteran in Seattle. The other “target,” he said, is opponents preparing to defend the technique that has made four victims in a row inside the octagon.
“My leg is a target,” Walker said. “I broke my leg in my last fight. Of course my leg hasn’t recovered 100 percent. I’m aware of that. And I’m aware my leg is a target for kicks because they know I broke it. They’re going to kick my leg.
“I’m training for that. [And] I know heel hooks are a target, that they’ll train to defend the foot. I’m aware of it. I’m honest with myself. I don’t lie, I don’t delude myself. I’ll be prepared for the fight.”
Walker has constantly said he didn’t want to be ranked, nor face ranked opponents in the UFC, until he’s ready. The 28-year-old made it harder after submitting Junior Tafa, Don’Tale Mayes, Kennedy Nzechukwu and Sutherland in a span of 14 months, a nice body of work in a relatively shallow weight class.
“Whatever the UFC tells me to do, I’ll do,” Walker said. “I’m a soldier of the UFC. If they give me a mission, I’ll accomplish it. I try to explore the maximum of my potential. I think I’m not ready [for top contenders]. But if the UFC thinks I am, I’ll go. I work for a company, I’m an employee and I’ll do what they tell me, what they think is best. If they think I should do it, I’ll do it. I already signed the contract, I’m going to do it. But I’d like to evolve more, shape my game more, develop muscle maturity. I’d like to have more time.”
“People can say, ‘He needs to believe in himself more,’” he continued. “Statistically speaking, if you look at heavyweights, guys become champions at age 33, 34. When there’s an exception, it’s 32. No one became champion at 28. You’ll say interim champion, but who stayed champion? I want to be champion and remain champion. I don’t want to become champion and lose the next fight and become a former champion. I want to be a solid champion.
“Statistically speaking, champions who were solid in the division were over 32. Why would I want to go against science, against statistics? Who am I to go against Isaac Newton, [Albert] Einstein, Frankenstein?”
Walker doesn’t mean he’s specifically afraid of Tybura, nor sees the Polish heavyweight as a bigger threat to overcome. He knows, however, that beating Tybura would automatically push him up the rankings and closer to matchups against the elite fighters in the division.
“My problem isn’t Tybura,” Walker said. “Tybura is fine. My problem is who comes after Tybura. I don’t know who comes after Tybura. That worries me. I don’t like being worried about my career. You only get one career. I have to take care of my career like it’s my diamond. Tybura isn’t the problem for me, the problem is what comes after Tybura.”
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