{"id":313720,"date":"2019-05-15T10:29:01","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T17:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=313720"},"modified":"2019-05-15T10:29:01","modified_gmt":"2019-05-15T17:29:01","slug":"johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Walker confident he can beat Jon Jones &#8216;now&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Johnny Walker, one of the top young light heavyweights in the game, is eager to get a shot at the belt.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to reporters at UFC 237 in Rio de Janeiro, the streaking UFC light heavyweight contender said he wants to fight UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones as soon as possible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m ready to fight Jon Jones already,\u201d Walker told reporters at UFC 237, as transcribed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/2019\/5\/15\/18623428\/johnny-walker-ufc-title-shot-beat-jon-jones-now\">MMAFighting.com<\/a>&#8216;s Guilherme Cruz. \u201cAll I need is to recover my shoulder and have a decent camp. But I\u2019m ready. I have enough technique and experience for that. I don\u2019t think he has anything to surprise me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m ready to beat Jon Jones now. Anyone they put (against me), I\u2019ll accept it, but I\u2019d rather fight someone from the top-five next. But if it\u2019s a top 10, that\u2019s okay, I\u2019m the No. 12 light heavyweight now. I\u2019ll accept anyone that\u2019s ahead of me, but I want to beat Jon Jones. But I have to go slowly, I don\u2019t want to take anyone\u2019s spot. Many people deserve it more than me, I still have a lot to show, and I will conquer my space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Walker (17-3) has quickly become one of the UFC&#8217;s biggest stars in Brazil. Just 27-years-old, he is currently riding a nine-fight win streak in his MMA career. He&#8217;s already 3-0 in the UFC with three first-round knockout wins over Khalil Rountree, Justin Ledet, and Misha Cirkunov.<\/p>\n<p>After his 36-second win over Cirkunov, Walker did &#8220;the worm&#8221; and injured his shoulder during his victory celebration. He recently had shoulder surgery and is ready to return later this year.<\/p>\n<p>Walker&#8217;s manager Lucas Lutkus spoke to reporters at a PokerStars dinner before UFC 237 (Walker is the UFC PokerStars ambassador in Brazil). BJPenn.com&#8217;s Adam Martin was present at this dinner. Lutkus said that if it isn&#8217;t Jones next, their team would like to fight either Dominick Reyes, Corey Anderson, Glover Teixeira, or Alexander Gustafsson next.<\/p>\n<p>But regardless of who he fights next, Johnny Walker is looking at it as a stepping stone to get to Jon Jones and the belt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPENN.COM<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 5\/15\/2019. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Johnny Walker, one of the top young light heavyweights in the game, is eager to get a shot at the belt. Speaking to reporters at UFC 237 in Rio de Janeiro, the streaking UFC light heavyweight contender said he wants to fight UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones as soon as possible. \u201cI\u2019m ready to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54474,"featured_media":304876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[41397,10091,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Johnny Walker confident he can beat Jon Jones &#039;now&#039; | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"UFC light heavyweight contender Johnny Walker believes he is ready to get a shot at the belt against UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Johnny Walker confident he can beat Jon Jones &#039;now&#039; | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"UFC light heavyweight contender Johnny Walker believes he is ready to get a shot at the belt against UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-05-15T17:29:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Johnny-Walker-Jon-Jones.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"399\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Adam Martin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Adam Martin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Adam Martin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/9121c55977ac5a06bcfc98f34d32d920\"},\"headline\":\"Johnny Walker confident he can beat Jon Jones &#8216;now&#8217;\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-15T17:29:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-05-15T17:29:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/\"},\"wordCount\":374,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Johnny Walker\",\"Jon Jones\",\"UFC\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2019\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/\",\"name\":\"Johnny Walker confident he can beat Jon Jones 'now' | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-15T17:29:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-05-15T17:29:01+00:00\",\"description\":\"UFC light heavyweight contender Johnny Walker believes he is ready to get a shot at the belt against UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"UFC\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Johnny Walker confident he can beat Jon Jones &#8216;now&#8217;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; UFC News, Results &amp; Fight Videos\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":148,\"caption\":\"| BJPenn.com\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/9121c55977ac5a06bcfc98f34d32d920\",\"name\":\"Adam Martin\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/adam-martin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Johnny Walker confident he can beat Jon Jones 'now' | BJPenn.com","description":"UFC light heavyweight contender Johnny Walker believes he is ready to get a shot at the belt against UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Johnny Walker confident he can beat Jon Jones 'now' | BJPenn.com","og_description":"UFC light heavyweight contender Johnny Walker believes he is ready to get a shot at the belt against UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.","og_url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/","og_site_name":"| BJPenn.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","article_published_time":"2019-05-15T17:29:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":696,"height":399,"url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Johnny-Walker-Jon-Jones.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Adam Martin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_site":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Adam Martin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/"},"author":{"name":"Adam Martin","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/9121c55977ac5a06bcfc98f34d32d920"},"headline":"Johnny Walker confident he can beat Jon Jones &#8216;now&#8217;","datePublished":"2019-05-15T17:29:01+00:00","dateModified":"2019-05-15T17:29:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/"},"wordCount":374,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Johnny Walker","Jon Jones","UFC"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/#respond"]}],"copyrightYear":"2019","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/","name":"Johnny Walker confident he can beat Jon Jones 'now' | BJPenn.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-05-15T17:29:01+00:00","dateModified":"2019-05-15T17:29:01+00:00","description":"UFC light heavyweight contender Johnny Walker believes he is ready to get a shot at the belt against UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/johnny-walker-confident-he-can-beat-jon-jones-now\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MMA News","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"UFC","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Johnny Walker confident he can beat Jon Jones &#8216;now&#8217;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","name":"| BJPenn.com","description":"MMA &amp; UFC News, Results &amp; Fight Videos","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization","name":"| BJPenn.com","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","width":600,"height":148,"caption":"| BJPenn.com"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/9121c55977ac5a06bcfc98f34d32d920","name":"Adam Martin","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/adam-martin\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313720"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54474"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}