Las Vegas, NV — UFC 279 light heavyweight Johnny Walker is thrilled to fight in front of fans once again this weekend.
“For the last four fights, no crowd. Very depressing. Now I have the people’s energy back, so let’s smash it,” Walker (18-7) told media outlets including Cageside Press this week. “The crowd, I feel their energy. They motivate me. I see that people are watching, and I want to make a show for them. I want to show them that I’m real, you know?”
Walker is looking to overcome back-to-back losses against Jamahal Hill and Thiago Santos. He just overcame another sort of fight however: with CBD.
Though generally considered safe, Cannabidiol, which is used to treat pain and other ailments, had some disastrous side effects for Walker.
“Yeah. The last three years, I’ve been sponsored by them. It’s nothing against CBD, it’s just myself, my brain don’t react too good. Other people’s maybe, but my brain, maybe I have [ADHD], hyper activity, something like that. Then when I have CBD, the CBD should calm me down, but every CBD have a little bit of THC. The THC f*cked me up,” he explained. “I get paranoid, I don’t trust nobody, I get late for training, I don’t follow schedule, I get lost, I don’t trust nobody — it f*cked my life, and I didn’t know that.”
Walker has stopped taking CBD, outside of creams for muscles from time to time. Having recognized it was detrimental to him, he appears to be in a better spot now. But he would elaborate on just how serious it got, especially when he was taking more than the recommended dosage.
“Bro it was another dimension. I believed in things that did not happen,” said Walker, adding “It’s crazy. My confidence got really low.”
Watch the full UFC 279 media day appearance by Johnny Walker above.
