Follow @Mike_Fagan_13 on Twitter for live updates from the “Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg” conference call at 2:00 p.m. ET. Scheduled on the call are Football Legend-Turned-Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter Herschel Walker and Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker.
Walker and Coker will discuss Walker’s upcoming second professional MMA bout on the televised card of a STRIKEFORCE World Championship Doubleheader on Saturday, Jan. 29, at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif., live on SHOWTIME (10 p.m. ET). Walker (1-0) will return to the cage to face Scott Carson (4-1) in a heavyweight bout.
The coverage begins at 2:00 p.m. ET. Join us for commentary and analysis. Don’t miss it.
[UPDATES] via @Mike_Fagan_13: (click here for conference call audio)
– Walker: I want to be a good ambassador for the sport, but first I need to be a good fighter.
– Walker: I’ve been doing martial arts for 33 years.
– Walker: Whatever Mendez, Cook, Camarillo, and the fighters tell me to do, I do.
– Walker: My motivating factor [to fight] is to compete.
– Walker: I have to be much better than my first fight.
– Walker: I’m in better shape now than I was in my 20s.
– Walker: To be honest, I wasn’t positive about fighting again. I just went to the gym and trained. The fight came up, and I took it.
– Walker: The guys at AKA have become like family to me.
– Walker: I don’t have any long-term plans in MMA. I don’t dream; I do reality things.
– Walker: If I fight again, we’ve got to step it up a little bit more.
– Walker: Is my fighting a gimmick? If u think so, why don’t you come on down to AKA & see. I will roll with anyone.
– Coker giving Herschel the “first guy in, last guy out” of the gym praise.
– Walker: I’m nervous right before I go on stage to make sure my shorts are pulled up. I’m not nervous when I hear the clink of the cage door.
– Walker: I ran a 4.38 40-yard dash in February. That’s without any track work.– Walker: Every nutritionist in the world has called me crazy. I eat one meal a day: salad and soup. I’ve been doing this for 20 years.
– Walker: Part of the reason I fight is to help other fighters make more money.
– Walker: It works for me. I can’t say it’ll work for anyone else. I guarantee I can get anyone in to shape, though.
– Walker: I eat my one meal around 8 or 9 at night. I don’t eat anything else. Maybe some water or juice.
– Walker: If I stay in this kind of shape, there’s no doubt in my mind I could play football at 50.
– Walker: MMA is safer than football and boxing. It should be an Olympic sport.– Walker: I have every church in America writing me that they need a new roof, new air conditioning.
– Walker: You don’t get hurt in football unless you don’t see the hit.– Walker: Tom Landry told me when you take something out of a city, put something back in.
– Walker: I’ve got a lot of friendships, knowledge of martial arts out of MMA.
– Walker: There’s a world of difference between MMA and Taekwondo.
– Walker: I’m still a white belt in BJJ. I do train in the gi at AKA.