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STRIKEFORCE QUOTABLES: Herschel Walker says he left the decision for him to fight or not up to his AKA trainers
Jan 29, 2010 - 12:29:15 PM STRIKEFORCE QUOTABLES: Herschel Walker says he left the decision for him to fight or not up to his AKA trainers

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

"I love martial arts. I've loved it for years. I love the sport of it. When I saw MMA years ago, I fell in love with it... They've cleaned it up so much that it is now a mainstream sport, and I wanted to get involved in it. There are incredible athletes doing it, and I want to consider myself a good athlete, and that's the reason I want to do it... I'm stepping into this sport because I love it and to fight people who are trying to grow like I'm trying to grow. I don't know how far I'm going to go and how long I'm going to be in it...Working at AKA has been incredible. They have nothing but fighters there, and I've picked up jiu jitsu from them. This is like a human chess match. This is a tough, tough sport, probably one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life... [You have to leave your ego at the door at the American Kickboxing Academy] and I did it when I started training [MMA] there. I told [AKA founder and trainer] Javier Mendez. I said, `Javier, it is up to you and the fighters here. I would love to fight, but after a couple of weeks, if you don't think I can do it, you tell me, or the fighters tell me, and I'll swallow my pride and not do it.' It is a serious sport. It's not a gimmick. It's not fake. You can get hurt, if you don't know what you're doing in the ring. At the same time, AKA has a lot of pride. So I left it up to them."

-Herschel Walker talks to the Miami Herald about his love of MMA and preparing for his debut fight at the age of 47.

Penick's Analysis: Walker has the physical gifts to be successful in this sport in the short run, and he's clearly taking everything seriously when it comes to just how tough it is to compete in MMA. The training he's been receiving at AKA is no joke, and if this is in fact how he went about things with them people should be a lot more comfortable with him stepping into the cage tomorrow night. We'll see just how much he's learned at AKA tomorrow night, but it's clear he's not taking this lightly in any sense, and that's great to see.