Valter Walker: ‘I’m A Different Guy Now’

“My first fight was in the APEX, I lost,” Walker said. “Second fight, I think like, ‘Bro, what do I do? If I fight [in front] of nobody, OK, I lost. Now I fight with over 20,000 people.’ My coach said, ‘No, when you have people, you’re always good. You like the attention… I think you’re going to win in the first round.’ I say, ‘Bro, really?’ He says, ‘Yeah, I believe in you.’ I say, ‘If you believe in me, okay. If these 20,000 people don’t believe, but if you believe, let’s go.’”

Walker did just that, submitting Tafa via heel hook with just four seconds left in the first round to secure his first win inside the UFC Octagon.

“I always make the position in the gym,” Walker said. “I always choke everybody in the gym with this position. But I didn’t have the confidence to do this in a fight. But I had some things on my mind. I already lost my first fight. My coach said if I lose this fight, the UFC will cut me off… I say, ‘Bro, I will [beat] this mother*****. Choke him, try to do what I do in the gym… I take him down, try it, it worked. The guy’s screaming and I’m like ‘Let’s go, bro.’ Now, I believe more and more. I believe I can, and this win brings me more motivation… I’m a different guy now. Focused now more on my nutrition, and I’ve been training more technique.”

Throughout the challenges and successes of his transition to the UFC, Walker has had one person by his side every step of the way: his wife, Valeria. Since the start of his professional career in 2020, she’s played a vital role, balancing the responsibilities of a mother, cook, and manager of his visas and documents, all while working as a nuclear physics engineer.

“We are married five years,” Walker said. “She’s my hero because she’s a very smart human. She’s an engineer, a nuclear physicist. She helps me a lot. She makes all my management things with UFC, like Visas. She makes everything. She also cooks for me and works in the office. We have a daughter. I help with our daughter, as well. We have a good family.

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“I want to have money to bring her a good life. Because she helped me have the chance for only training. She’s the first to believe in me. When I married her, I had zero professional MMA fights. She was with me from the start, and we’ll go to the end together.”

As Walker said, her sacrifices have allowed him to devote the majority of his time to his training. Ahead of his matchup against No. 15 ranked Don’Tale Mayes at UFC Fight Night: Cannonier vs Rodrigues, a lot of that training has been prioritized on his striking.

While Mayes poses a threat on the feet, Walker wants to show fans this Saturday all the hard work he’s putting into becoming a more complete martial artist. 

“Everybody think I don’t have striking, only wrestling, but it’s not true,” Walker said. “I train a lot of striking in the gym . I train with Bogdan Guskov. He’s a very good striker, I strike with him. Nobody wants to train with him. All the time I go with him because he’s a very good striker, he knocks down everybody. All the time I train with him; I learn with him. This fight, I’ll try to show my [striking].

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“Of course, my opponent is a boxer. If I eat some punches, of course I'll take him down and try to choke because I know his wrestling is not on my level. I know I have better wrestling and better jiu-jitsu. I know my ground game is better.”