Rio de Janeiro – UFC light heavyweight Johnny Walker has no problem with wherever his fight goes when he faces Paul Craig at UFC 283 on Saturday night in Brazil.
“I’ve been watching him a lot for the last few months. I make all of my camp in training towards all of his speciality like grappling right? He pull guard, he have good triangles attacks, and everything. I have good jiu jitsu also. I know how to deal with this,” Walker told reporters on Wednesday.
“Whatever he want to do I’m ready to do because I’m very comfortable for this fight. Any game he want to play I’m going to counter him.”
Walker (19-7) is coming off a submission victory over Ion Cutelaba at UFC 279 and is ready for more grappling from a highly proficient Craig.
“I did a lot of drills, triangle escapes, takedown defense. I did a lot of wrestling,” Walker said.
Walker made the point that, while he was to watch out for Craig’s jiu jitsu game, his opponent has to be wary of his as well.
“He been fighting guys that is not very specialist in jiu jitsu. I’m kind of (a) specialist in jiu jitsu, I have really good jiu jitsu, I’ve been training jiu jitsu for many, many years. I’m a brown belt, but I’m not going to play jiu jitsu. I’ll fight him MMA,” said Walker.
Being back in Brazil fighting in front of Brazilian fans has Walker excited for fight night.
“It’s very exciting because, I fought here two times already in Brazil in Brasilia and Fortaleza, but I’ve never fought in Rio. It’s my hometown so I’m really excited. My mom is going to be here, my dad, so all of my friends are going to be watching,” he said.
“It’s going to be really fun. I’m really excited.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Johnny Walker above. Walker takes on Paul Craig at UFC 283 on Saturday night in Rio de Janeiro.
