After getting another win, and getting past a tainted supplement scare, Walt Harris is eyeing a pair of fellow heavyweights as his next targets.
Ottawa, ON — A pair of heavyweight fights graced the UFC Ottawa card on Saturday night. The more entertaining of the two, without question, was the main card explosion between Walt Harris and Sergey Spivak. It was Harris who was explosive, mind you, finishing off newcomer Spivak in under a minute.
It was a much needed win for Harris, who had his world turned upside down following a failed drug test after a win over Andrei Arlovski in December. The win was later overturned to a no contest, however, a tainted supplement turned out to be the culprit. Both the NSAC and USADA handed down a four month suspension, allowing Harris to quickly return to action.
“I definitely don’t buy my own supplements any more,” Harris explained to media outlets including Cagesiee Press post-fight in Ottawa. He’s planning a lawsuit against the supplement maker. “That’s in the background, kind of moving and operating, but I am. I’ve always been a clean fighter. I’ve never failed a test since I’ve been in the UFC, and for that to happen, it tore me apart more than anything.”
As for the fight, “I had to make a statement tonight,” Harris said soon after the bout. “I couldn’t let [Spivak] get comfortable, I couldn’t let him get over the fact that he was in the UFC. That’s a real thing, I could tell that he was like ‘oh crap, this is real.’ I can sense that. So I just wanted to stay in his face, put a little pressure on him, and see how he adapted. And he didn’t really adapt very well.”
To be fair, Harris certainly didn’t give him much time. But the outcome was just what the doctor ordered. “I felt like I had a lot of pressure, which is a lot of pressure I put on myself, to be honest,” he admitted.
The ups and downs, Harris said, have seasoned him. Now that he’s back, “I’m ready for success. I’m prepared for it mentally, physically, I made the gym change, I’m training different. I’m training smarter, I’m training harder, but I’ve got a lot of people that are making sure my game is rounded out.”
So while you might know ‘The Big Ticket’ for his power, he wants you to know that “I’m not just a knockout guy. I kind of wanted to go a little bit longer tonight, so I could show you guys some of the stuff that I’ve been training and working on.”
Maybe next time. As to who next time might come against, two names did come up: Aleksei Olenik and Justin Willis.
“I think the Olenik fight is a good fight for me, and it’s a way for me to break into the top ten,” he said of the pairing. There’s no hard feelings there, as the pair have trained together and are on good terms. That’s not the case, however, with Willis.
“Justin Willis is just a fight that the fans have been asking for,” Harris explained. Harris pursued the fight, only to find Willis “played it to the left, which kind of pissed me off a little.” But it’s more than that, Harris added later.
“There’s guys in this organization that try too hard,” he observed. “I’ve never been that guy. I’ve always gone out there and fought and let my hands and feet do the talking. I don’t feel like I got to go on social media and beg and drag and do all this stuff, all these little schemes and stuff.”
“I get that’s where the game’s going, but [Willis] just rubs me the wrong way. He’s brash, and he’s not that good. The guy’s really not that good.”
Watch the full UFC Ottawa post-fight press scrum with Walt Harris above!
