‘I Was Losing My Mind’

Walker shared his thoughts on the disappointing result of his fight with Magomed Ankalaev and why he feels the officials in Abu Dhabi screwed him over.

Johnny Walker is finally speaking about the fiasco he was involved in at UFC 294 that saw his light heavyweight contender fight with Magomed Ankalaev get waved off just two minutes into the bout.

Walker would take an illegal knee to the face that resulted in the cageside physician waving off the match. According to his coach, the doctor was trying to assess Johnny’s condition and asked him where he was. Walker replied “I’m in the desert.” That apparently wasn’t a good enough answer. The fight was stopped and declared a No Contest, nearly setting off a brawl in the cage.

In a new interview on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Walker explained what happened from his point of view.

“He asked me if I wanted to continue fighting,” Walker said (via MMA Fighting). “I said Yes. He said ‘Where are you?’ I didn’t want to say the wrong answer because I was excited when he was doing the test and I wanted to say the right answer. I thought to say Abu Dhabi … and then I said, ‘Fine, I’m in the f—ing desert, bro. I’m here. I’m good. … I’m in the desert. I’m in the Middle East.’”

“I can speak good English,” Walker added. “The doctor wasn’t in his native language and had a heavy accent as well, I understand what he said. I tried to explain and give the right answer to him, but in the middle of the situation, maybe I fight for the title shot and everything, my mind is going a thousand miles an hour. I received the shot in my face and I was OK to fight.”

Walker blames the miscommunication on his focus during the fight.

“Even my last fight against Anthony Smith, he said I attacked his family, I had no idea what he was talking about,” Walker said. “‘You attacked my family.’ ‘What?’ I didn’t understand. It’s the same situation. It’s very complicated because you go a thousand miles an hour, you’re fighting for your life and your career, hopefully get a title shot after, and everything’s over, it’s very disappointing.”

Walker says he begged officials to let him continue fighting.

“It’s a fight to get a title shot, for the champion, come on,” he said. “I was trying to show that I was OK. I was getting desperate a little bit because I don’t want the fight to stop. We train so hard for that moment, I was a little bit desperate in that moment as well … I think he should give me five minutes first to try to settle me down and then come ask me. Maybe he brings the f—ing translator, he can speak my language properly.”

“You don’t want to take points off, you don’t want to disqualify him, I want to keep fighting. Let’s f—ing fight anyway. It’s so much hard work. The dreams, the career, many people depend on me. My family, my future, and I was like, ‘What the f—?’ I want to fight everyone here then. I was losing my mind.”

The Brazilian fighter was clearly disappointed in the officiating from top to bottom. Not only was the fight called prematurely, it was declared a No Contest rather than a DQ win for Walker. It was a pretty bulls— call that cuts Walker’s pay in half.

“I don’t know how much money I’m going to get,” he said. “I spent so much money on this fight. I booked a big house for my whole team, I booked everybody’s flights, my wife came with me. It’s so much money. I’m in the red now, I can’t wait to receive some money so I can start paying my bills.”

According to UFC CEO Dana White, the promotion will ‘make things right.’ Hopefully that means a rematch between Johnny Walker and Magomed Ankalaev sooner rather than later.