{"id":911043,"date":"2026-09-30T13:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T13:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/911043\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T13:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T13:32:09","slug":"johnny-walker-ready-to-reveal-full-potential-in-ufc-332-heavyweight-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/911043\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Walker ready to reveal full potential in UFC 332 heavyweight debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Johnny Walker arrived in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) back in 2019 with a lot of hype<\/a>, winning his first three fights in spectacular fashion: all via wild knockout (like this<\/a>), earning him a slew of \u201cPerformance of the Night<\/a>\u201d bonuses. But, things got wobbly from there. He\u2019d win some, he\u2019d lose some.<\/p>\n

Now, he\u2019s 1-3-1 over his last five and relegated to UFC 332<\/a>\u2019s early \u201cPrelims\u201d this weekend (Sat., Oct. 3, 2026), facing 10-1 United Kingdom-based Heavyweight, Mick Parkin. Walker expects the move from Light Heavyweight to Heavyweight to make a big difference, based on how hard the cut was affecting his life and training camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s weird because I usually suffer a lot,\u201d Walker told MMA Fighting\u2019s Jose Youngs. \u201cIt\u2019s not hard, but it\u2019s a lot of work that I have to do for Light Heavyweight. And now it\u2019s just normal life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was Light Heavyweight, one month before the fight, like the last three weeks where you can train, I couldn\u2019t,\u201d Walker revealed. \u201cI\u2019d have when you feel everything [going] dark, like \u2018Wait, wait, wait.\u2019 In the middle of a spar, we\u2019d have to wait. It\u2019s not my heart and it\u2019s not my breath. It\u2019s just everything\u2019s getting dark. Like [buzzing noise in ears] and dizzy. And then let\u2019s go, back to sparring. It\u2019s crazy, no?<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, I can train strong until the last week,\u201d he added. \u201cEven this week I can train with somebody. I don\u2019t need [to wait] any more. I\u2019m ready, just technique. I do the strategy, the technique. Nothing hurts and nothing is depleted. Without glycogen. I have full glycogen in my body. I\u2019m ready to perform, so I\u2019m really excited to put the show on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walker\u2019s Heavyweight debut was originally set to go down at UFC Belgrade<\/a> two months ago (details here<\/a>), but an injury to his opponent has given him two more months to settle into the weight class. We\u2019ll see how the new division looks on him when he faces Parkin this Saturday in Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Johnny Walker arrived in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) back in 2019 with a lot of hype, winning his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":911044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,446572,1396,179146],"class_list":["post-911043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-332","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-on-paramount"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=911043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/911044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}