UFC 321 was an injury-laden affair. The main event came to an end with a massive surprise—Tom Aspinall vs. Ciryl Gane ended in a no-contest after a scary double eye poke in the opening round. The highlight KO of the night, Quillan Salkilld’s head kick against Nasrat Haqparast, left the Australian starlet with a broken foot. However, there was another surprise that just came to light days after the event wrapped up.

Brazilian heavyweight Valter Walker entered the Octagon last Saturday night in Etihad Arena with one purpose. He wanted to extend his winning streak in the fight against Louie Sutherland. And in his trademark fashion. That’s exactly what he did! He snatched a heel hook submission to beat ‘Vanilla Gorilla’ mere 90 seconds into the opening round. With this, Walker has extended his record to a staggering fourth straight heel hook finish in the first round, justifying why he wears a severed foot necklace. However, it appears his own leg got sacrificed in the process. On Tuesday, ‘The Clean Monster’ hopped on Instagram to reveal a leg injury he sustained during the UFC 321 fight. 

Valter Walker couldn’t keep his UFC 321 injury a secret

Turns out, before securing the heel-hook victory, the Scottish heavyweight delivered a brutal leg kick to Walker’s left leg, causing the Brazilian to stumble. That was the exact moment the GOR MMA fighter suffered a broken fibula. Sharing a clip of the incident on Instagram, Walker also posted an X-ray of his fractured leg and another photo showing it in a cast. “Do you want to be a UFC fighter?” he asked his fans in the caption.

In the comments, Walker opened up further about the injury, revealing that he hadn’t planned on making it public. “I was going to keep a secret, guys,” Walker wrote. He explained that during his earlier Instagram Live session, he seemed off because of the intense pain from the break. “But they asked me to reveal it, so there it is, 5–6 weeks of heavy recovery.” Despite the setback, Walker remains optimistic. 

He added in the Instagram post, “But [I am] telling you it’s worth it, a life worth living.” If there’s anything good that came out of this whole ordeal, then it’s the fact that the 27-year-old has now tied the UFC record for most heel hook submissions with Rousimar Palhares. ‘Toquinho’ had four heel hook submissions in 12 UFC fights. For now, the Brazilian heavyweight is in recovery, but once he is done, he already has an opponent in mind—Hamdy Abdelwahab.

Hamdy Abdelwahab dares Walker to heel hook him

Valter Walker wasn’t alone in breaking a body part at UFC 321. Hamdy Abdelwahab silenced any doubts about his toughness at UFC 321, where he overcame a point deduction and a suspected broken hand to secure a dominant win over Chris Barnett. Despite the point deduction, the Egyptian heavyweight stayed composed and continued pressing forward. 

“To be honest, I didn’t care. I didn’t care at all. I know I’m dominating this fight, doesn’t matter, take a point, take a round,” Abdelwahab said after the bout. He later revealed, “I think I broke my hand in the very first round when I was [doing] ground and pound… but I told myself in between rounds that doesn’t matter. I’m going to keep going.”

Following his unanimous decision victory, Abdelwahab turned his attention to Walker, throwing down a bold challenge. “It’s because he’s fighting no wrestling. If he wants to do a grappling match, I’m ready… Forget about MMA, if he thinks he can heel-hook me, let’s do it.”

It appears Johnny Walker’s younger brother has a long recovery period ahead of him, but at least after that, he can go hunting for another heel. Do you think it will be Abdelwahab’s?