Johnny Walker details injury that forced him out of UFC 311, recent camp change

Withdrawing from UFC 311 was a tough pill to swallow for Johnny Walker.

Walker (21-9 MMA, 7-6 UFC) was seeking new life ahead of his light heavyweight matchup against Bogdan Guskov this past Saturday at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif., but he was forced out due to a "bad injury."

Walker was in the midst of a big life change after deciding to leave Dublin, Ireland for the U.S. and bring his family with him. So when he could no longer compete, it weighed heavily on him.

"Yeah, that was really hard for me," Walker told MMA Junkie. "It was a lot for me because I just moved from Ireland. I spent the last four years in Ireland training at SBG under John Kavanagh. Then I moved country, I brought my wife, my baby, and my dog to a new country, a new house. I had to finish the house, make a lot of bags and aside of that, I started a training camp in a new environment with new coaching and new training partners. It was a lot.

"I was so committed to training. I went to Gilroy, trained with DC, did a lot of sparring with Strickland in Vegas at Xtreme Couture, trained with Eric, a new coach. I put a lot of effort into making this fight happen. It was a lot of stress, mentally and physically. I put a lot of myself into this camp. Around all of this situation, I invested a lot of money. Then something happened. I was very upset because I put so much effort and money and time to make this happen, but we cannot control."

Walker revealed that it was a rib injury that forced UFC doctors to pull him from the fight.

"It was nothing stupid," Walker said. "I was doing the last sparring, very technical, timing. I wasn't trying to hurt anybody. It was hard sparring, but very conscious. I was trying to get out of a jiu-jitsu position and throw myself, like a normal thing, and then I felt my ribs pop. I said, 'OK, stop, stop, stop.' I think something happened to my ribs. Then I tried to keep fighting, I stood up again, started moving. I was like, 'Wait, something's wrong.' Then I had to stop to check what happened so it doesn't get worse.

"Then I got an X-ray the next day. The UFC got the results, and then they pulled me out after that. They knew how bad the injury was. I got the notice and was devastated because I was trying so hard. So much effort and so much timing. ...I'm doing a lot of physiotherapy to heal. You can't do much with rib injuries. You just have to stop, wait, and let it heal. It takes time, four to six weeks, and I'll be back on track. It is what it is. I've never hurt my ribs before."

Walker, who's targeting a return in April or May, is grateful for the time he spent training under John Kavanagh at SBG. However, he explained why he didn't feel like the training environment was suited for him.

"We had the best coach there. John was a very high-level coach," Walker said. "He did the best for me. He improved my game a lot, but I just had one or two training partners. The last fight against (Volkan) Oezdemir, I was adapting myself to get ready as best as I could for the fight. I was doing boxing sparring in the ring. ... In the fight, you can see I brought him close to the fence, which was wrong because I was sparring in the ring. You can't spar in the ring and fight in the octagon. It's totally different. In the octagon, if you step close to the fence, the guy is going to take you down, or the guy is going to knock you out because when you're close to the fence, it's the worst place to be. The guy (Oezdemir) knocked me out because I brought him to the fence.

"This is the worst thing you can do in MMA. The environment wasn't perfect for MMA. At SBG, I had just one training partner. Here in Vegas, I have the UFC PI for strength and conditioning, for nutrition, for recovery. At Xtreme Couture, I have high-level guys between top 10 and top 15. Light heavyweight and heavyweight, and Sean Strickland. Every day I have a high-level guy to train with. You need challenges, and now at Xtreme, I have that challenge. ...I have everything now for recovery, for nutrition, for training, coaching. Now the light heavyweights are in trouble. Now you're going to have the best version of Johnny Walker because I'm just going to be better. Now my career is going to fly."

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 311.

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Johnny Walker details injury that forced him out of UFC 311, recent camp change