Johnny Walker has been active in MMA since late 2013. His MMA record stands at 17 wins and 7 losses coming into UFC 279 where he will square off with Ion Cutelaba.
Walker is coming off of that meme loss to Jamahal Hill and has reportedly been struggling with mental health as far as 3 years ago.
Walker’s bad spree started back in November of 2019 when he was knocked out by Corey Anderson in round 1. Since then he’s had a single victory in September of 2020 against Ryan Spann and 4 losses.
Corey Anderson knocks out Johnny Walker then talks mad shit to his face
(via @espnmma) pic.twitter.com/7qA7o0eLxk— BroBible (@BroBible) November 3, 2019
According to a recent interview, that’s when Walker’s mental struggles overcame him. Walker believes that his mental health issues can be attributed to CBD use and even went so far as to say he’s ‘extremely allergic to THC (an ingredient in CBD).
“It gives me schizophrenia, panic attack.””
“It’s not strong, it’s a small percentage, but my brain is super sensitive for those substances and I didn’t know.”
Walker described an episode where he was seeing things that weren’t there.
“I went to Thailand and the first week there I had an episode, the [CBD I used] had higher levels of THC,” Walker said. “It’s not a huge amount, but high enough for my brain. It took me 10 days to get back [to normal], brother. I was messed up for 10 days. My fiancee had to take care of me like a baby.”
“She was giving me diazepam to sleep but I spit it out, I didn’t trust her. She put diazepam in a pudding and I ate two of them. I slept for half an hour and woke up and she had left for a massage, and I went after her. I took a van, a taxi, I went after her. Brother, I gave her a hard time.” Walker shared with Trocacao Franca.
“I woke up in the middle of the night seeing things, woke up and started packing my bags saying I wanted to go home, that I couldn’t stay there anymore.”
“When I stopped using [CBD] I became more confident and trusted people more, could focus on a goal and get early to the gym. My life is 100 percent better now, brother,”
“I was having arguments with my fiancee all the time, thinking of a bunch of crap. I wasn’t acting like my real self, you know? It was affecting me a lot and I had no idea what it was. The more anxious I got, the more CBD I took”
Walker is now reportedly sleeping “like a baby” with the help of two mental coaches and no medication,
“I’m back to being that guy I was. I didn’t need any of that — only rice, beans, and supplements, training f*cking hard and nothing else. “