Sist vi fick se honom i oktagonen så stod Johnny Walker som segrare över Misha Cirkunov via knockout endast 36 sekunder in i matchen. Vinsten ägde rum under galan UFC 235 som utspelade sig under våren. Sedan vinsten har det varit tyst om vilken Walkers nästa match kan bli, det har istället fokuserats på hur det kan gå i en eventuell match mellan honom och lätt-tungviktsmästaren Jon Jones. Om man ska tro honom själv är dock Walker inte kräsen när det kommer till vem han möter för att ta sig till toppen.
I en intervju med MMA Fighting berättar Walker att han ändå måste besegra alla i viktklassen för att bli mästare och därmed bryr han sig inte särskilt mycket om vem som kommer härnäst.
My target is the champion, so I’ll fight whoever they put in front of me, it doesn’t matter. I don’t have a preference. I have to get past someone to get to the belt, so I don’t care. Whoever they bring, it’s fine. I don’t want to sound cocky, but my goal is way bigger than this. People will say I’m cocky, that I’m talking about beating everyone up. Man, my goal is to be champion so I have to beat these guys up first.
Walker pratade även om Jones senaste match, under UFC 239, där han besegrade Thiago Santos. Enligt Walker behöver Jones göra mer i en match mot honom än vad han gjorde mot Santos för att inte bli knockad.
I think he can do much better than that. He definitely has to do more against me, otherwise I’ll knock him out in the first round. I think ‘Marreta’ was a great challenge. But Marreta got hurt in the first round and Jones is the champion and would obviously win if it went to the scorecards, so I think he took his foot off the gas and the fight went the way you saw. I thought about jumping in there and challenging him. But there were so many cops in every corner of that Octagon.
Utöver Jones så berättade Walker att han även har en annan framtida motståndare i sikte, ingen mindre än tungviktaren Francis Ngannou.
I’d like to impress the fans by beating Francis Ngannou. He’s a machine. He impressed so many people with his punching power, the way he finishes his fights. People is scared to fight him. I’m not scared to fight him. We have the same punching power. I did the test at the UFC Performance Institute. I was coming off a surgery and almost did the same number he did, so I have the same power or even more. I can definitely defeat him. I think I’ll have to fight two more times before fighting Jones, so I’ll get things going in any division. If they need a fight at heavyweight, I’m in. I don’t choose opponents. I’ll fight anyone. I don’t care if it’s a top 10, a top 20, a top 2. It’s just a regular human being that will get beat up the same way.
Sist vi fick se Walker var då han besegrade Cirkunov under UFC 235 som ägde rum den 3:e mars i Las Vegas, USA.
