Herschel Walker: “I am an athlete; I am always going to be an athlete”
February 4, 2010 – 5:15 am by Zach Krantz
The daily regime for Herschel Walker is a good month for most people. Can you imagine waking up and doing 1,500 push-ups and 2,500 sit-ups daily? I can’t. Maybe in a month? That’s what Walker does daily to keep in shape. Walker is a fifth-degree black belt in taekwondo who has studied the craft more than 30 years, while religiously exercising and eating well. The guy is just an athlete, period. He was a star at Georgia and in the NFL, but now he is a MMA star – a headliner in the sport who just recently TKO’d Greg Nagy in the 3rd Round. In his debut he looked pretty good. That’s before considering the fact that the guy is 47 years old. Men that age shouldn’t look like legit MMA warriors at that age.
His debut begs the question – can Walker become a fighter or is this a one and done type deal for the former gridiron great? I personally would prefer to not remember Walker for him getting his ass kicked in an octagon, but rather for his exploits as a workhorse on the football field. Herschel Walker joined The John Thompson Show on ESPN 980 in Washington and talked about the Super Bowl, his MMA debut last weekend and his training and how he stays healthy.
On if he was bored or just wanted another challenge in his life when he decided to pursue getting into MMA:
“It was another challenge. You know I love competition and this is something I have loved for a long time. Because I am an athlete, I am always going to be an athlete, I love to compete and I thought this was the ultimate competition. So I said I want a piece of it and I want to be involved in it.”
On how the preparation is different for MMA compared to a team sport like football:
“Well this was totally different because you are going into a ring or octagon or a cage and the guy is trying to hurt you. You know where as in football, you are not thinking about injuries even though you know you can get injured. Yeah guys can hurt you, but you are thinking about not fumbling the ball, whether they are going to call my play, catching the ball and different things like that. I am stepping into a cage where this guy really don’t like me because I am a football player, because I have gotten a lot of publicity. So he is going in there wanted to try and prove a point and hurt me. Make a name for himself. So that’s a little bit different and you are using every part of his body and I think that’s what I like about it. As an athlete sometimes you need to look at yourself as going into a room against your opponent and one of you got to come out. So who is going to work hard because one of you got to come out of that room? The baddest man in there has to come out.”
On who he thinks will win on Super Bowl Sunday:
“You know I was going to take the Colts, but now I am looking towards New Orleans. I think with Dwight (Freeney) being hurt and they have that bend but don’t break defense. I think the defense of the Saints have proved to me that they can cause turnovers on the defense. I think you are going to have an interesting game, but I give it to the Saints.”
Listen to Herschel Walker with John Thompson on ESPN 980 in Washington
Tags: Dallas Cowboys, Georgia Bulldogs, Greg Nagy, Herschel Walker, MMA, NFL, Strikeforce, USFL
