EXCLUSIVE | Johnny Walker: ‘I Wanna Retire Before I’m 35’
Despite just eight years deep into his professional mixed martial arts career, UFC light heavyweight contender, Johnny Walker already has laid out plans for his retirement — claiming that he will hang up his gloves before he reaches the age of 35.
Walker, a native of Rio de Janeiro, enters his upcoming UFC on ESPN+ 51 headliner with former light heavyweight title challenger, Thiago Santos off the back of a rallying second round knockout effort against upcoming headliner, Ryan Spann — snapping a two-fight losing skid.
The 29-year-old met with Spann at UFC Vegas 11 last September, managing to survive an early scare to stop Spann with strikes midway through the opening frame, notching his staggering 15. knockout victory in the process.
A professional veteran since just 2013, Walker, a product of Dana White‘s Contender Series Brazil 2 back in August of 2018, hopes to lodge his fifth Octagon success when pitted opposite compatriot, Santos, however, the charismatic striker is not planning an overly lengthy stay in professional mixed martial arts, appearing to limit his career to another period of five-years.
“You know, everyone gets scared to get kicked from the UFC, you know if they don’t do good, and they just cut the contract,” Johnny Walker told LowKickMMA’s Keelin McNamara. “I wanna be a champion so I changed all of my lifestyle. I’m living like a champion now, I just train, eat, and sleep. Every day, I focus 100 percent on my career.“
“I promised myself, the next five years I wanna do 100 percent,” Walker explained. “Rest good, train good, eat good, (live) very restricted and live like a champion to become a champion. I have to feel like a champion first before I can become a champion. … There is no other way, you know. I’m gonna keep doing this for the next five years because I wanna retire you know, bro. I wanna retire before I’m 35. When you get old, you can’t really compete against the younger guys. I wanna take now as my prime, and the next five years are gonna be my best five years.“
Before his losing skid was snapped against Spann, Walker dropped a unanimous decision loss to Nikita Krylov and a high-profile knockout defeat against Corey Anderson.
Following his transition from DWCS — Walker stopped the trio of Khalil Rountree Jr., Justin Ledet, and Misha Cirkunov with a trio of highlight-reel knockouts — the last of which, a stunning 36-second flying-knee stoppage.
