Valter Walker Rips Alex Pereira, Demands Flight for Sparring Challenge
Valter Walker is not letting up on Alex Pereira, mocking his sparring offer and demanding a plane ticket.
The war of words between Brazilian heavyweights Valter Walker and Alex Pereira keeps escalating, and Walker is not backing down.
The beef traces back to Walker predicting that his Gor MMA teammate Sergei Pavlovich would knock out Pereira when the two meet at UFC 335 in Las Vegas on December 12. Pereira took it personally, firing back by challenging Walker to spar at his gym and offering to pay him the equivalent of his last fight purse if Walker could submit him.
Walker has since turned Pereira into a punchline. In an Instagram video alongside coach Gor Azizyan, Walker said he is "still waiting for that ticket" and told Pereira to buy it so he could fly to Las Vegas and "get a hold of your foot." He countered with his own offer: if Pereira does not want to meet at the Performance Institute, Walker said he would buy him a business-class ticket to Russia instead.
In an interview with Brazilian channel Sexto Round, Walker went further, per Sherdog. He accused Pereira of having a "very wounded ego" and said Pereira spends money on imported cars just to show off. Walker also fired off a string of crude personal insults that do not bear repeating.
Pereira has not publicly responded to Walker since the original sparring challenge. Whether any of this leads to an actual fight remains to be seen, but Walker is clearly trying to talk his way onto Pereira is radar.
I will say this for Valter Walker: the man has zero fear of Pereira, and that alone makes him interesting. Most heavyweights would not poke the bear like this. Pereira is the most dangerous knockout artist in the UFC and Walker is out here calling him out on Instagram like they are arguing over a parking spot.
But let us be real. Walker is doing exactly what you do when you want a fight with the biggest name in the sport and the UFC has not handed you one. You talk loud, you talk personal, and you hope the other guy gets mad enough to ask for the matchup himself. It is the blueprint.
The sparring challenge was a nice touch from Pereira. Pay him his purse if he can submit you? That is a flex. Walker not flying himself out tells you he knows the leverage game. If Pavlovich knocks out Pereira at UFC 335, Walker will be first in line to say he called it. If Pereira wins, this whole thing dies quietly. Either way, it is good theatre.
KEEP TALKING FIGHTS.
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