After dropping back-to-back fights, Johnny Walker to Ireland to train at Dublin’s renowned, Straight Blast Gym, and the Brazilian is heaping praise on the team and its head coach.

Walker praises John Kavangah and SBG

The 28-year-old light heavyweight is booked to fight Ryan Spann this Saturday at UFC Vegas 11, which will go down at the Apex Facility. The bout will be Walker’s first since he lost via decision to Nikita Krylov in March, and that followed a stoppage loss to Corey Anderson last November.

Well, following the defeats, the Brazilian decided to head across the Atlantic to train at SBG. The Dublin gym is the home base for Irish star, Conor McGregor, and is led by renowned coach, John Kavanagh.

In advance of his bout this Saturday with Spann, Walker recently had this to say about his camp (quotes via MMA Fighting).

“It’s been one of the best camps I’ve ever had,” Walker said. “Coach Kavanagh is taking great care of me, he’s giving me special attention here, and I’m really happy.

He’s very smart and does great training. He’s super professional, and there are a lot of big guys here as well, some Bellator fighters, so it’s great training for me.”

Of course, it wasn’t long ago when Walker was widely viewed as one of the top, rising commodities at 205 pounds. So much so, there was talk about how he’d do against then champ, Jon Jones.

Fast forward to today, however, and Walker is in desperate need of a win. While talking about his recent setbacks, the dynamic fighter said this.

“I left a lot to be desired in my last two fights and I’ve fixed my mistakes, I have my head in the right place and I’m training well,” Walker said.

“I’ve made several changes in my life, management and coaching, I’m more focused now, 100 percent focused in my career.

t’s just training, eating and sleeping now. Nothing else. I have no other projects in my head. There’s no partying, no going out, it’s just resting and eating.

The only thing I do is play video games at home. I’m really focused in my career, in training, in dieting, so it will make a huge difference.”

“I’ll put pressure in the game, like I’ve always done in my first fights, and I’ll make no mistakes or wait too much,” Walker said.

“I’ll start hurting him. When I see an opening for a takedown, I’ll take him down. We’re fighting MMA.

I’ll try to knock him out, I’ll try to submit him. I won’t leave it to the judges because I don’t like that.

I’ll train hard. I’ll get some rest, too. I’ll be 100 percent for this fight and put on the best performance of my career.”

It will be interesting to see

Based on the comments above, it certainly sounds like Walker is focused and ready to go.

When you consider the abilities of Spann, and the fact he’s won eight straight, Walker will need to be in peak form if he hopes to end his losing skid.

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