Valter
Walker weighed in on his chaotic win over Junior Tafa
at UFC 305
on Saturday.
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Walker took on Tafa in preliminary heavyweight matchup at RAC Arena
in Perth, Australia. Walker controlled Tafa on the ground
throughout the first round before locking in a heel hook that
incited a scream from the New Zealander. While Walker did not tap,
referee Steve Perceval called a stop to the contest at 4:52 of the
opening frame.
Tafa seemed to only briefly protest the stoppage before squaring up
to Walker and slapping his unsuspecting opponent while surrounded
by security. Weighing in on the stoppage, Walker says he would have
snapped Tafa’s foot if the referee hadn’t intervened.
“If referee not stop, I broke his foot,” Walker said during a
post-fight media scrum. “I take his foot to home with
me. My coach say, broke and I go to broke. I don’t go for tap, I go
for him screaming.”
Walker said Tafa was not a man for cheap shotting him when he
couldn’t land anything during the fight. “The Clean Monster” also
posted a callout to Tafa’s elder brother, Justin
Tafa, to defend their family honor. Explaining his callout,
Walker said it was Junior Tafa who had originally predicted a
knockout over him and then his brother, Johnny
Walker. Walker has no doubt his elder brother would have
stepped up to defend the family name had he lost against Tafa.
“He talk about my brother. He say [he] knock out me first round and
after that come and knock out my brother in the first round too,”
Walker said. “And I believe if I sleep in the first round, I
believe my brother come and [defend the] name of our family. Now I
want to see if his brother [comes to defend the] name of his
family. His brother, come fight with me, defend] his little
brother.
“In the fight he cannot slap me and now when I was not ready, when
guy hold my arms, he slapped my face. He like not man, no. I wanna
see his [if] his brother man. Next one is his brother. Because what
the f—-, he slap my face. I never slap the face of another man. I
have kid, he have kid, and he disrespect me…He just make it
ugly.”
Walker added that he would like to face the elder Tafa as soon as
possible.
Saturday marked Walker’s first UFC win after suffering his lone
career loss via unanimous decision against Lukasz
Brzeski in his promotional debut this past April. Meanwhile,
Junior Tafa started his pro career with four consecutive knockouts,
but that success has not translated to the UFC, where he is now 1-3
and on a two-fight slump.