Johnny Walker’s heavyweight debut at UFC 332 on Saturday ended with Mick Parkin crashing to the canvas at 3:35 of the first round, dropped by a knee from the clinch that earned a $100,000 Performance of the Night bonus. Watching live from his home in Russia, his brother Valter Walker sat almost motionless.
The flat reaction, pulled from his livestream and shared across social media in the hours after the fight, prompted a flood of questions. The younger Brazilian has now offered his version.
Writing on social media in Portuguese, Valter gave two reasons for his muted celebration. The first was the clock: it was around 1 a.m. in Russia when the fight finished, and he was drained. The second was a crude joke in the style he is known for, tying his exhaustion to the energy he claimed to have burned off willing his brother to victory.
A debut that fed a record-breaking night
Johnny Walker’s finish was one of 11 knockouts on the card at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, a new UFC single-event record that also included nine first-round stoppages and 16 knockdowns. The 23-10 Brazilian, who had moved up from light heavyweight, said he had grown tired of the weight cuts that defined his previous division.
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“I like to play hard, I don’t like easy things. So at light heavyweight, I had to nerf myself,” Walker said after the fight.
He also sounded confident about what he can do in his new weight class.
“I don’t think there’s any heavyweight that can fight like me.”
Brothers now in the same bracket
Valter Walker, 16-1 with five straight submission wins, has fought at heavyweight for the whole of his UFC run. His brother’s move up puts the siblings in the same division, something they have teased each other about publicly for months.
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The main event of UFC 332 saw Natalia Silva win the vacant women’s flyweight title by unanimous decision over Wang Cong. The UFC has not yet announced Johnny Walker’s next fight.
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