UFC light heavyweight top contender Johnny Walker learned a lesson the hard way. He had to stop doing his iconic yet absurd celebration after a shoulder injury.
MMA athletes have their own ritual celebrations when they win a big match. Justin Gaethje does the flip, Walker does the warm and Adesanya even one faux ‘marked his territory’ in the cage.
A lot of them simply get over excited and yell.
The 30-year-old Brazilian likes to do a break dance moved called worm. It’s that kind of dance where one would lay on his chest and belly and then start flicking the body up and down akin to how snakes and worms move sans limbs.
After his first two UFC matches against Khalil Rountree and Justin Ledet, Walker celebrated his TKO victories by doing this move. He did it and had no problem at all. On his fourth UFC outing against Misha Cirkunov, Walker scored via a flying knee knockout and was too excited about his big victory.
After that, he tried to do his iconic worm dance. He tried to start by falling to the canvas as if it was a pillow but instead ended up dislocating his shoulder in one of funniest UFC moments of all time.
When he hit the canvas, his shoulder was dislocated. The UFC even replayed his fail celebration in slow motion during his octagon interview.
“Here you go. You are very happy. But, well, don’t do that again, sir. Please.” UFC commentator Joe Rogan said as they watched the clip together.
Walker returned to the UFC cage again this weekend in an outing against Paul Craig. At the very start of the bout, during the entrances, Walker started his signature move – and the UFC director’s cam immediately cut straight to the audience where it lingered for a couple of seconds.
And while Walker was easy to ignore during the entrance he did manage to do a televised worm celebration afterwards. But he opted to modify to routine as to minimize the chance of an injury. This time, Walker simply sat down and hilariously acted as if he was meditating to celebrate his win.