UFC light heavyweight star Johnny Walker took to social media to announce that he is unfortunately out of his UFC 311 clash against Bogdan Guskov. A crestfallen Walker told fans that he was “devastated” he had to pull out of UFC 311 due to a “bad injury” after months of hard work. We do not know the exact nature of Walker’s injury. The Brazilian fighter vowed to come back stronger and even hoped Guskov could find an opponent in the meantime.

Walker, of course, is coming off consecutive losses to Magomed Ankalaev and Volkan Oezedmir last year and was hoping to bounce back against Guskov. However, he got injured just a week from 2025’s first PPV and will have to wait longer. For the unversed, Guskov is close with Johnny’s brother, Valter, since the two train together in Russia.

The Uzbek took the news of Walker pulling out remarkably well, and even to social media and wished Johnny would “feel better, s–t happens”. But make no mistake, Walker pulling out is a blow to Guskov, who is ranked #14 in the division at the moment.

A win over the #10 ranked and well-known Johnny would have helped him crack into the top ten and given him some more name recognition. Now the Uzbek is unlikely to get a top-ten opponent as a replacement since there is so little time left until the fight. Guskov will now probably have to either fight a lower-ranked (or perhaps even unranked) opponent or call off the fight entirely. And fans had mixed reactions to Johnny’s decision to not fight at UFC 311.

Fans react to Johnny Walker pulling out of UFC 311

Johnny Walker, of course, is one of the most entertaining guys to watch with a big, zany personality and a wild, striking-first fighting style. It was therefore not surprising to see fans wish Walker well and hope the Brazilian bounces back well: “Heal up bro. You’ll smash the next one” Of course, given Johnny’s recent skid in form, many fans were very hopeful of watching him back in action and making his way up towards a title shot yet again. The disappointment his fans are feeling after the announcement was perfectly encapsulated by this comment: “Noooo wayyy 😭”

Johnny looked quite disappointed and upset in the video at having to pull out and was quite apologetic to fans over disappointing them. But one fan consoled him and pointed out that the light heavyweight dynamo made the right call by pulling out and didn’t need to worry about the fans: “I don’t care what anybody says you’re making the right move. Heal up and I look forward to your return.”

On the other hand, this is the internet, and not everyone was so supportive of the 205fer pulling out. One Instagram user, for instance, outright accused the Brazilian striker of pulling out because he was scared of losing against Gufrov: “Or did u know u we’re going out cold and u s–t a brick”.

Walker, of course, has not been successful against foreign guys recently, having lost his last two to a Russian and a Swiss guy. This is why one fan felt that it was best Johnny pulled out or he would probably have lost to the Uzbek anyway: “Probably would have got chinned anyway”. What do you think about Johnny Walker pulling out of UFC 311?