Johnny Walker will not appear at UFC 311 as originally planned.
The Brazilian light heavyweight recently announced that he was forced to withdraw from his scheduled fight with Bogdan Guskov due to a “severe injury.” Walker did not reveal the exact nature of the illness. It is unclear whether Guskov will remain on the card to face his replacement. UFC 311 is currently scheduled to take place on January 18th at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, headlined by the lightweight title fight between Islam Makhachev and Arman Tsarukyan.
“Bad news. I won’t be competing at UFC 311 next week because I have to miss out on a serious injury. I’m devastated,” Walker said in a video on social media. “I really want to come back and put on a show for you guys because I put in a lot of effort over the months and a lot of training, but that won’t be the case this time. I wish Bogdan all the best. I hope they find an opponent. He probably put in a lot of effort, so I hope they find a replacement soon.
“…I know this is not good news, but I have to make the right decision and accept this and recover and come back stronger. Everyone knows I’m a father, Kaio is my little baby, I have to fight for them, for my family, and I’ll come back stronger. We have to put ourselves in the best position to do so, and everything goes one step at a time. Sorry guys, I’ll come back stronger and recover as soon as possible and do the show again. I’ll be back for it.”
Walker is looking for his first win since May 2023, when he defeated Anthony Smith by unanimous decision at UFC on ABC 4. The 32-year-old from Rio de Janeiro has suffered back-to-back knockout losses to Magomed Ankalaev and Volkan. Oezdemir.
