Johnny Walker feels he knows why things went south for him against Corey Anderson.
Walker was riding a wave of momentum going into his light heavyweight clash with Corey Anderson. Walker had knocked out all of his first three UFC opponents in under two minutes. Many thought that UFC 244 would be his coming out party, but Anderson didn’t get the memo. Walker was stopped in the first round via TKO.
Walker Explains What Went Wrong At UFC 244
Walker spoke to MMAFighting.com following his first UFC defeat. He broke down why he thinks Anderson was able to get the jump on him early.
“I know it was my mistake,” Walker told MMA Fighting. “I hesitated too much. I should have been more aggressive, but I didn’t. I had too many people talking about his takedowns, so I waited for him to shoot, and I didn’t let my game go. It was the wrong strategy. I should have listened to myself. I listened to everyone else but me. That was my mistake. I regret that.
“I should have gone for the knockout right away like I always do, but I ended up changing my game and everything went wrong. But it’s alright – I’m ready for the next one.”
Walker doesn’t appear to be allowing the loss to bring him down. In fact, he’s already looking at his next potential opponent. That being the winner of Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. Paul Craig on Nov. 16.
“I’ll be there (at UFC Sao Paulo) to watch it as a guest fighter,” Walker said. “I know that two more wins will get me back to where I was, so I’m not too off the rails. I’ll be back soon. It was a learning experience. I won’t ever hesitate in a fight again, brother. Never.”
