Emmanuel Walo is coming off a disqualification win back in September at World Series of Fighting 13 and he is looking to continue his unbeaten streak at the end of the month when he challenges Chuck O’Neil for the CES MMA welterweight title.
Everyone in this sport has a story on how they found the sport. Some may have found it by watching videos of the initial UFC’s back in the 1990’s or may have been introduced to the sport via The Ultimate Fighter. For Walo (7-1-1), he found the sport while serving in the military.
“In basic training, they introduce us in something we call Combatives,” Walo said. “It’s the Army’s version of grappling, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, and judo all mixed in together. It also incorporates some level of striking. When I was in Iraq, we had a guy there that was actually a brown belt in jiu-jitsu. He was teaching us stuff during our off time. After we came from work, we would go to the gym and meet up with him.”
“We would spend two to three hours on the mat and I was like ‘wow, what is this.’ So I bought some UFC DVD’s and I was watching it in my spare time while training grappling and everything. When I come home I was going to give this a try. I did not know I was going to get this far, it was just something I was interested in. It’s something I wanted to try out. It turned it that it was something I feel in love with and now it has turned into a career.”
His pro debut came at the end of 2011 at Cage Fury Fighting Championships 12 and lost a decision to Michael Wilcox. He joked that he learned never to take a fight at middleweight and learned a valuable lesson in that fight.
“My pro debut, it was me being anxious and me wanting to jump into the pro ranks. I underestimated my opponent. Mainly because as an amateur I fought grapplers and everything like that so I was like ‘you know what, I am going to go pro and smash this guy. He is a wrestler, so what.’ Well, it turned out that he was a national champion wrestler and he was able to take me down, hold me down, and everything like that. He did what he was supposed to. After that, I took a step back to reevaluate myself. Me and my coaches decided to work down to 170. We are going to work on our grappling. We are going to work on our overall game and we are going to come back stronger and it has worked.”
On January 30th, he can continue his unbeaten streak with a win over O’Neil and claim the CES MMA welterweight title. This event will be shown live on AXS TV and Walo believes that this fight is an audition for the UFC.
“He [O’Neil] is well rounded. He is overall a good kid and a big welterweight. He did not get to where he is at by just rolling over for opponents. He got where he is at through hard work and dedication. Getting in that cage and giving his all. As a challenger, I have to make sure I bring out 100 percent and give him 100 percent of me. In a way, this is an audition for the UFC. Either one of us, our next fight could be in the UFC. A win over him, I would be 8-1 and a win over me, he would be 15-6. This is an audition and we both know that.”