Amateur heavyweight will be looking for his fifth victory tonight when he meets Justin Goodin in a UMMAF qualifier tonight at Valor Fights 30 at The International in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Prior to entering mixed martial arts, Walker was a Division Three All-American football player at Maryville College and would also spend time in the military. Ultimately, it was an ex-girlfriend that would play the key role into Walker deciding to become a mixed martial artist.
“In high school, I really liked watching it,” Walker told The MMA Report. “I stopped for a while. I played some ball, did some military service and did bodybuilding. Honestly, I had a girlfriend. My ex now but I had a girlfriend that I fought for to get her back. I wrote her a letter. She once told me, if it meant marring me. Would you give up bodybuilding and all the crap that goes with it.”
“At first, I was like that is kind of mess up to ask me to do that,” he continued. “We broke over the summer and I wrote her a letter. I said that I would step back into MMA after two years. Come to your sport and show you that I love you. I totally did it. Trained my tail off and absolutely committed all summer to it. I fought one. Everything worked out, Got her back. Obviously, we are not together any more. It did not work out fully, but it worked for awhile. Once I started training — now I love it. It keeps me out of trouble and without MMA, I would go insane.”
On Thursday’s edition of The MMA Report Podcast, Walker joined the show to talk about his path to mixed martial arts, his fight tonight at Valor Fights 30 and what fans can expect from him in the future.