Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight
Valter
Walker is not the type of guy who keeps his opinions to
himself.
Parked outside of the UFC’s top 10 at heavyweight looking in,
Walker spoke with Brazilian journalist Laerte Viana on
Thursday to discuss the plight of his division. With no active
champion—Tom
Aspinall has stated he informed the UFC he will be coming back
soon, but there is no date on the calendar—and an interim title
back in the works again, Walker sees that the division may be wide
open. Even so, he sees a chasm of talent in his class, while
holding off-and-on training partner Sergei
Pavlovich in extremely high regard.
Walker first spoke about his own prospects, where he freely
admitted that he is not where he feels he needs to be to challenge
the best in his weight category.
“You have to know which doors to open,” Walker said in regards to
what heavyweight has to offer him in the immediate future. “For
example, I don’t think I’m ready to fight anyone in the top five
yet. The level is different. I train with a top-three heavyweight,
so I know exactly what his level is.”
“I don’t think Pavlovich is a good comeback opponent for
[Pereira]”
Further along in his interview, Walker made no bones about his
confidence in his part-time teammate. With former two-division
champ Alex
Pereira currently up at heavyweight looking for his next
challenge, a pairing between “Poatan” and Pavlovich has been
floated as a potential option.
When asked how he sees a potential matchup between “Poatan” and
Pavlovich, in case the UFC decides to pit their third-ranked and
fourth-ranked athletes against one another, the Brazilian answered
without hesitation.
“I don’t think Pavlovich is a good comeback opponent for
[Pereira],” Walker remarked. “Sergei is a heavyweight built like a
tank. Before, he wasn’t really training with a proper team, but now
he’s fully committed and working with a structured camp in a big
team. In my opinion, Pavlovich would run right through him. That’s
exactly what he does here in the gym, and what he did to ‘Xicao’
[Tallison
Teixeira]. I don’t think ‘Poatan’ has the frame to stop
him.”