Johnny Walker believes his training camp for UFC Fight Night 257 was the best of his career.
According to Walker (21-9 MMA, 7-6 UFC), that’s largely due to his recent move to Las Vegas, where he started training at Xtreme Couture with head coach Eric Nicksick. Walker is winless in his past three fights and will look to turn things around when he takes on rising light heavyweight contender Zhang Mingyang (19-6 MMA, 3-0 UFC) in Saturday’s headliner at Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, China.
“It was a very good move, one of the best moves I did for my career,” Walker told MMA Junkie Radio. “Not just because of Xtreme but because of the UFC Performance Institute. Of course, Eric is an amazing coach. He’s been an amazing add to my career. A lot of big guys there to train (with).
“Performance Institute have breakfast, lunch, dinner, physiotherapy, recovery, strength and conditioning, so everything I need to achieve the next level. I’m very happy. That was my best training camp that I did, and I just feel very excited and amazing.”
Light heavyweight has seen numerous champions in the past several years, which gets Walker excited. Newly crowned champ Magomed Ankalaev will run things back with Alex Pereira in the UFC 320 headliner on Oct. 4.
“The division is very interesting because a few guys have potential to be champion,” Walker said. “This is very interesting because it makes everybody excited to keep moving forward, always getting the challenge, and try to get the belt. I have a few guys here that believe they’re going to be the champion.
“They don’t just believe. They actually have a big chance to become champion. That’s exciting because you don’t even know by the end of the year who’s going to be holding that belt, so that’s what’s exciting about this division because anyone has the chance.”
