His MMA future: “I’m going to fight one more. Right now, I’m getting ready to get back into [American Kickboxing Academy] and do one more fight.”

His trainers: “When I first came in the gym, they were impressed with my cardio. There was a lot of knowledge that I had to learn about the fight game. I had been in Tae Kwon Do, but the fight game was a little different. I got that under my belt. Now I’m going to get back in the gym, and I’m going to leave it to Javier (Mendez) and Bob Cook and Dave (Camarillo) to say when they think I should step back into the cage. I may think I’m ready to go right away. They may think it may be longer, so I’m really leaving it all up to them because they’ve taken care of me so far.”

His training focus: “I don’t think anybody can become a black belt in jiu-jitsu in five years. It’s going to take a long time. What you can do is familiarize yourself, and I think you saw that [at 'Strikeforce: Nashville'] with a lot of the jiu-jitsu guys. This is a human chess match when you talk about jiu-jitsu. That’s one thing that I really want to learn. I’ve got Dave Camarillo out in San Jose, so what he did is have me work on some things when I was away. When I get back out there with the guys, we can work on some other things.”

When the fight will be: “I’d definitely like to do it before the end of the year. It’s not like I’m a young, spring chicken here.”

In response, Walker had this to say:

‘Canseco wanted to fight me, and what’s strange about it is that what I do is not a circus, not going in there playing trying to make money. My money went to Pastor Evans at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship. All my proceeds went there. I didn’t get into this to make money, I got into it for the competition. Jose is doing this for the money and my thing is, if he wants to fight me and thinks it’s going to be a circus, I will hurt him. This is not a joke, I will hurt him. I don’t do things as a joke [or] as entertainment. When we go out there and play a flag football game, that’s entertainment, that’s having fun. But this MMA fighting is real, you can get hurt and he doesn’t understand this. I’m doing this as a fighter, not as a joke.’

Say what you will about Walker’s abilities as a mixed martial artist, the guy is a class act who takes professional sport very seriously. MMA certainly doesn’t need a ‘circus’ to help draw in more fans, but it would be nice to see Walker shut Canseco up for good should this war of words continue.

‘I guess I may have to show Herschel Walker who the real bad Boy of the Sports industry is. If the powers that be are reading this, I want in.’

Apparently these days a ‘real bad Boy’ is defined as someone who loses their MMA debut in 77 seconds by spending half that time running away from their opponent and the other half getting their face pounded in – which is exactly what happened to Canseco when he took on the giant Hong Man Choi as part of DREAM’s 2009 Super Hulk Tournament (see video below).

Perhaps Canseco forgot the outcome of that bout, or maybe the memory was beaten out of his skull altogether, but either way his delusions of grandeur are laughable. Herschel Walker may not have looked spectacular in his own MMA debut but if does end up taking on Canseco be sure to put your life savings down on Walker emerging the victor.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqsLJKeyR0w

“I keep pinching myself thinking, ‘That’s Herschel Walker in the Strikeforce cage, right?’ It’s like it wasn’t real.”

The decision to put the older, inexperienced Walker on a major card, while at the same time bumping the fight between Jay Hieron and Joe Riggs to the undercard, earned a lot of criticism for Coker, and many people called the decision a gimmick or a joke.

Coker was covering his bases though, and told Walker from day 1 that he would only allow the fight and offer a contract if Walker went through a legit training camp.

“That was part of the deal. I said, ‘Herschel, if you really want to do this, you need to move to San Jose. You’ve got to put your life on hold for the nine weeks.’ … And he did it. He did everything that was asked of him, and I think you saw that it paid off.”

Walker trained with American Kickboxing Academy for the fight, in addition to making several media appearances and turning the event into a mainstream media occasion. However, Coker and Walker have yet to talk a return.

“No, not yet. We didn’t look that far ahead. We just said, ‘Let’s go through the first fight and take it from there.’”

When asked whether he would approve a second bout, Coker’s answer was very telling.

“Sure, why not?”

Walker earned a six-figure payday for his appearance, but did not keep it.

“The thing I really want people to know is that Herschel donated his entire purse to charity. He’s fighting for a nonprofit organization, and he really came through for them.”

The charity was Project Turnaround, a faith-based charity that works to improve the lives of urban youths and families.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLU1F_W4lc8

In the video, Walker addresses the questions:

How long does he see himself fighting? At 47 years old, does he plan to fight into his 50’s?

What are his motivations getting into mixed martial arts and what still drives him after having already had more success than most people dream of?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwERDaCDmGw&feature=player_embedded

Later, Walker discusses his training regimen and how it stacks to up to that of a professional football player. In Walker’s own words “it’s the hardest thing he’s ever done.” He also makes it clear that he’s going to put in a serious effort to do the sport of MMA justice. His trainers believe that he is ready to compete at a high level, that remains to be seen until this weekend.

It is also worth noting that Walker is donating his entire purse for Saturday’s fight to a charity called Project Turnaround, which is dedicated to improving inner city communities.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IghLrxlMTw

Frank Shamrock & Marloes Coenen

Herschel Walker

Marloes Coenen

Herschel Walker

Marloes Coenen

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-ouuR_TSz4&feature=player_embedded

MAIN CARD
NICK DIAZ (20-7) VS MARIUS ZAROMSKIS (12-3)
CRISTIANE CYBORG SANTOS (9-1) VS MARLOES COENEN (17-3)
HERSCHEL WALKER (0-0) VS TBA
BOBBY LASHLEY (4-0) VS TBA