{"id":39780,"date":"2026-08-07T03:53:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T03:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Valter-Walkers-biggest-believer-Rousimar-Palhares-sees-a-future-UFC-champion-202260"},"modified":"2026-08-07T03:53:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T03:53:46","slug":"valter-walkers-biggest-believer-rousimar-palhares-sees-a-future-ufc-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/valter-walkers-biggest-believer-rousimar-palhares-sees-a-future-ufc-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"Valter Walker’s biggest believer? Rousimar Palhares sees a future UFC champion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Rousimar
\nPalhares<\/a> believes Valter
\nWalker<\/a> has all the tools to become an
\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a> champion.<\/p>\n

Walker has emerged as one of the promotion’s most unique
\nheavyweight prospects, compiling five consecutive first-round
\nvictories via leg-based submissions, including four heel hooks and
\na calf slicer. The streak has earned the Brazilian the nickname “The Heavyweight Toquinho” in Brazil, a fitting moniker given that
\nWalker has openly acknowledged modeling his submission game after
\nPalhares.<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Speaking to Sherdog, the former UFC middleweight said he\u2019s
\nimpressed watching Walker enjoy success with the same submission
\nthat made him one of the sport’s most feared grapplers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s very rewarding to see him doing this without anyone judging
\nhim,\u201d Palhares said. \u201cI’m sure he’ll become champion because the
\nopponents in the division don’t know how to defend it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Palhares established himself as one of MMA’s most feared submission
\nspecialists, but his UFC tenure was also marked by controversy. The
\nBrazilian was released by the promotion in 2013 after refusing to
\nimmediately release a heel hook against Mike Pierce<\/a>
\ndespite repeated taps, prompting the promotion to terminate his
\ncontract.<\/p>\n

He later signed with the
\nWorld Series of Fighting<\/a>, though that stint also ended in
\ncontroversy. Palhares retired in 2024 after spending the latter
\nstages of his career competing primarily on regional shows in
\nRussia, Poland and Italy. Sixteen of his 19 career wins came via
\nsubmissions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rousimar Palhares believes Valter Walker has all the tools to become an Ultimate Fighting Championship champion. Walker has emerged as one of the promotion’s most unique heavyweight prospects, compiling five consecutive first-round victories via leg-based submissions, including four heel hooks and a calf slicer. The streak has earned the Brazilian the nickname “The Heavyweight Toquinho” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39781,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}