“Look, the guy was inexperienced,” the head of the organization said at a press conference after the UFC 294 event in Abu Dhabi. “He asked Walker, ‘Where are you right now?’ and the guy said, ‘In the desert.’ And I can’t say he was wrong. I think there was a big language barrier between those two, plus the doctor was inexperienced. And that sucks.”
The UFC executive made it clear that he was going to reschedule the top welterweight fight.
“These things happen sometimes, but we’re going to fix it.”
Recall that already in the fourth minute of the first round, the Russian misjudged the position of the opponent near the net and gave him a forbidden knee strike to the head, and the doctor, after talking to the Brazilian who looked normal, unexpectedly advised the referee to stop the fight.
It should be noted that during the conversation with the doctor, Walker seemed to ignore his questions, and did not react to the referee’s call to end the fight, but after a few seconds he was very surprised that he was not allowed to continue the fight with Ankalaev and tried to start a scuffle in the cage.