UFC Nashville’s Valter Walker talks Rousimar Palhares comparisons — and the danger of heel hooks
Valter Walker wrote his name in the history books by scoring consecutive heel hook finishes inside the octagon, a first for UFC heavyweights, and he wants to make that his thing.
Walker forced Junior Tafa to quit in the first round of their UFC 305 fight in August 2024. Six months later, Don’Tale Mayes fell in his trap and tapped just 77 seconds into the fight. The Brazilian heavyweight returns to action at UFC Nashville, taking on Kennedy Nzechukwu this Saturday night, and revealed he looks up to veteran Rousimar Palhares when he goes for finishes of that nature.
“‘Toquinho’ caught everyone with that move,” Walker told MMA Fighting. “I watched his highlights since I was 14, 15 years old. I’m such a big fan of his. I never expected to be known for this move, never expected to be compared to him. I’m his fan. He’s an idol to me. That’s something I did a lot in the gym but never had the confidence to do in a fight.”
Palhares, a UFC veteran and former World Series of Fighting welterweight champion, scored submissions in 16 of his 19 MMA wins, including 10 heel hooks. He became a controversial figure in the MMA spare for allegedly holding submissions too long, which led to his release from the UFC and WSOF.
“I don’t think anyone does it better than me, especially at heavyweight,” Walker said. “When people get too afraid of something, that’s what ends up happening. [Nzechukwu] is definitely training that. I think that will open more holes for me to throw a hand or try something else. I believe he will be so worried about the takedowns and on the ground that he will end up making a mistake, and that will give me an opportunity.”
Walker said it’s hard to train that move in the gym because one second more could result in serious injury, and for that reason he has changed the way he practices the attack.
“I hurt a friend in the gym because he tried to defend it and stopped rolling,” Walker said. “He rolled, I rolled, and then I thought he was going to roll again but he didn’t. That move is very dangerous. When I do it in the gym and my friends defend it, that’s because I didn’t apply force. I stopped using force in the gym after I hurt this friend of mine.”
Walker has became a fan favorite in the Brazilian MMA space for his humorous posts on social media, and said that some members of his team — even his wife — tried to convince him to create a scary persona instead.
“I wanted to act like this mean guy that can hurt you, that puts fears in others, but I’m not that guy,” Walker said. “My wife and my coach want me to stop joking around and act so people can be afraid of me, that I can go there and break everybody’s foot, but it’s not who I am. I can’t do that shit.
“In Australia, [Tafa] talked a bunch of crap about me and I felt I could break his foot, but there’s something inside of me, you know? I feel bad. He screamed and I let it go. The next one [Mayes] only tapped once. You should tap three times. He tapped once and I could go and break his foot, but I feel bad. It’s such a serious injury if you do that, you know? Life is a boomerang. You do something bad to someone, you pay the price down the line. I believe in God, but I believe hell is on Earth too. You’ll pay the price here before you die.”