Johnny Walker reckons that had he not done the worm after winning at UFC 235, he would have ended up beating Jon Jones.
During his impressive early UFC run, Walker stormed the light-heavyweight division with a series of first round finishes. The most notable came when he landed a flying knee that put Misha Cirkunov unconscious, before proceeding to do the worm.
How far will Johnny Walker go at heavyweight?
Unfortunately, that celebration ended up causing him to hurt his shoulder, and he needed months to recover. He ended up losing his return to the cage when Corey Anderson stopped him at UFC 244, and despite racking up some good wins could never again quite reach those heights.
Johnny Walker believes he would have beaten Jon Jones during original UFC run
While it may be hard for newer fans to remember, at the time in 2019 Johnny Walker was viewed as such a handful at light-heavyweight that he might be the one to end Jon Jones’ historic run. Unfortunately, he never got to title contention and the bout never happened.
Speaking today on Uncrowned’s The Ariel Helwani Show, he recalled that period with fondness. And he believes that had he opted against doing the worm in celebration of his big win, he would have set off a series of events that led to him beating the greatest fighter of all time.
“100 per cent Jon Jones was saved by my celebration, because I got hurt,” he told Helwani in a clip that would later gain traction on social media. “It took away my strengths, movement, hype. I hurt myself, and it took surgery and a long time to come back from that.
“So I knew if I didn’t hurt myself, kept training and doing everything, I could beat him. But it is, I’m happy with my career, and I’m on my own path. I don’t regret anything, and it was all leading to who I am today.
“All of the mistakes just taught me that I didn’t want to make this mistake again, and I’m never going to make that same mistake ever again.”
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