Why Johnny Walker refuses to train with UFC Champ Magomed Ankalaev
Johnny Walker has no desire to train with the current UFC light heavyweight champion as he ultimately sees a trilogy bout with Magomed Ankalaev happening at some point in the future. This was discussed by Walker in a recent interview with James Lynch as the light heavyweight contender covered several subjects ahead of his UFC Fight Night: Shanghai headliner against Mingyang Zhang on August 23rd.
This is a key juncture in the Brazilian fighter’s career as Walker is winless in his last three outings after a pair of clashes with eventual UFC titleholder Magomed Ankalev and a KO loss around the halfway mark of round one against Volkan Oezdemir in June of last year. After a pair of cancelled contests earlier this year (Bogdan Guskov in January and Azamat Murzakanov in June, respectively), Walker will step into the cage for his first outing of the calendar year
When asked if Ankalaev would be returning for training at Xtreme Couture for his Alex Pereira rematch coming up and if the two former opponents might end up training together in Las Vegas, Walker said,
“Not yet, but we’re probably going to fight again. I don’t want to train with somebody that I’m probably going to fight. Maybe after the fight we train… No, no, not before. I fought him twice already, but I believe there’s going to be a third one.”
Johnny Walker and the stories of the first two Magomed ankalaev bouts
Johnny Walker and Magomed Ankalaev did battle on a pair of occasions that saw them clash in late-2023 and run it back early in 2024 for the sequel clash. The first fight between the two saw the bout end inauspiciously with a no-contest verdict being dealt out in October 2023. This came in the opening stanza of their UFC 294 clash with an accidental illegal knee seeing the fight wrap up with a no contest call being dealt out.
The two light heavyweights would run it back in January 2024 for the main event of that Las Vegas-based Fight Night card at the UFC Apex. This outing would see a much more defined and conclusive result as Ankalaev would finish Walker with punches a bit over the halfway mark of the second stanza in their fight.
