Walker on ‘desert’ answer that ended UFC 294 fight: ‘I was losing my mind’

Johnny Walker is finally speaking about the fiasco he was involved in at UFC 294 that saw his light heavyweight contender fight with Magomed Ankalaev get waved off just two minutes into the bout.

Walker would take an illegal knee to the face that resulted in the cageside physician waving off the match. According to his coach, the doctor was trying to assess Johnny’s condition and asked him where he was. Walker replied “I’m in the desert.” That apparently wasn’t a good enough answer. The fight was stopped and declared a No Contest, nearly setting off a brawl in the cage.

In a new interview on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Walker explained what happened from his point of view.

It was a pretty bulls— call that cuts Walker’s pay in half.

“I don’t know how much money I’m going to get,” he said. “I spent so much money on this fight. I booked a big house for my whole team, I booked everybody’s flights, my wife came with me. It’s so much money. I’m in the red now, I can’t wait to receive some money so I can start paying my bills.”

According to UFC CEO Dana White, the promotion will ‘make things right.’ Hopefully that means a rematch between Johnny Walker and Magomed Ankalaev sooner rather than later.