Johnny Walker rules out fighting half-brother Valter: 'Are you crazy?'

Johnny Walker says he will not fight his half-brother, fellow UFC heavyweight Valter Walker. "No, man. Am I going to fight my own brother? Are you crazy?" he told Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting in an interview published on Monday, November 2.

His reason was the nature of the job. "I go in there to hurt other people," he said. "I don't want to hurt my own blood, you know?"

That is a change from March, when he told Full Mount MMA he would do it if paid. "They need to put the money on the table," he said, according to EssentiallySports. He suggested starting with grappling because, he said, "I don't wanna hurt him."

How it got here

The dispute went public in February, when Valter beat Zion Clark in a grappling match at Karate Combat 59 and then called Johnny out. "I want to crush him!" he said, according to SportBible. Johnny answered on Instagram: "I am ashamed!" He called choking Clark, who was born without legs, "very disrespectful."

The tone has eased since. Valter ruled the fight out himself in an interview published July 26, telling Ag. Fight he wouldn't accept it because he respects Johnny. On September 30, MMA Sucka quoted him tipping his brother for the belt: "He'll be heavyweight champion next year." We found no reply to Monday's interview.

Johnny said they still talk. "But we do talk, we're good, everything's fine," he said. He added that Valter's jokes and "crazy behavior" upset Johnny's mother and wife. That makes it "difficult to get closer," so he keeps "a little distance."

Valter, 28, can still join him in camp, but he'll need a hotel. "He just can't stay at my house," Johnny said, laughing that his wife won't let him in. He also said, "I accept him the way he is, and I love him the way he is."

Where they stand

Valter has the better recent run. He is 16-1 and has won five straight by first-round submission, our records show. The latest came against Thomas Petersen on July 25 in Abu Dhabi. Johnny is 2-2 in his last four.

Valter is No. 11 on the UFC's media list, where Johnny is unranked. On the UFC's Meta list they are No. 11 and No. 12.

We think the brother fight is dead for now. Johnny has gone from naming a price to saying "there's no way", and Valter told Ag. Fight in July he wouldn't take it either.

What comes next

Johnny, 34, faces Waldo Cortes Acosta in the main event on Saturday, November 7, at Meta Apex in Las Vegas, according to UFC.com. It is set for five rounds. Valter isn't on the card and has no fight booked. He said before the Petersen fight that he wanted a new contract before facing ranked opponents, according to MiddleEasy.

Johnny took the fight on short notice after the planned headliner, Sean Brady vs Gabriel Bonfim, fell through. Brady said a staph infection forced him out, per MMA Sucka. Johnny, 23-10 with one no contest, stopped Mick Parkin with knees in the clinch on October 3 in his UFC heavyweight debut. Cortes Acosta, ranked No. 6 by the media panel, has lost two straight decisions.

Johnny opened at +247 and is now +170 on our fight page, with Cortes Acosta at -222. Once the margin is removed, the market gives Johnny a 35% chance. Those prices can move before Saturday.

Looking back at closing prices, one unit on each of his 11 UFC fights with odds since 2020 would have made 2.40 units. All of that came from the +285 win over Zhang Mingyang; the other 10 fights together lost 0.45 units.