Valter Walker weighed in on his chaotic win over Junior Tafa at UFC 305 on Saturday.
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.
