Johnny Walker announced on social media that he has been forced to withdraw from his first fight of 2025.
The Brazilian was set to make his return at the first PPV card of the year next weekend at UFC 311 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.
Walker is currently coming off of back-to-back knockout losses to Magomed Ankalaev and Volkan Oezdemir.
Before then, he was riding a three-fight win streak by beating Ion Cutelaba, Paul Craig and Anthony Smith.
He was set to take on Uzbekistan's Bogdan Guskov who after losing his UFC debut to Oezdemir, has earned consecutive wins and finishes over Zac Pauga and Ruan Spann.
It's currently unclear whether Guskov will receive a new opponent in order to stay on the card.
“I’m devastated,” Walker said in a video. “A lot of hard work I put in a few months, trained a lot, and I really want to come back and do the show for you, but not this time. I wish Bogdan good luck, hopefully he can find an opponent because he probably put a lot of hard work as well, so hopefully he can find a replacement very soon.”
“I know this is not good news, but I have to make a right decision and accept this and recover, come back strong because now,” he added. “Everybody knows I’m a dad now, Caio is my little baby, I have to fight for them, for my family, and I have to put myself in the best position for come back strong and all, take step by step. Sorry guys, but I’ll be back stronger, heal as quick as I can and come back to put the show on again.”
