New year, new Johnny Walker. That was the plan, anyway.

One of the light heavyweight division's most entertaining strikers was well-prepared to start his 2025 campaign in style with a fight at UFC 311 in January. However, Walker's would-be clash against Bogdan Guskov put him in the complicated position of fighting a friend.

Had it not been for a dislocated rib in his last sparring session before fight week, Walker would've had to put that friendship aside for the bout. Instead, Walker withdrew from the fight and Guskov battled late replacement Billy Elekana inside Los Angeles' Intuit Dome, scoring a second-round guillotine victory.

"I watched the fight. It was good," Walker told Uncrowned. "He said after the fight he's not interested to fight me, and he'll fight anyone [else], and I believe it's the same for me because we're friends. I went to his wedding in 2019 when I met him in Russia. He's been cornering my brother (Valter Walker) and teaching my brother since his first fight in Russia as well. So he's helping him, being in my brother's corner, and we know each other. It's hard because when you go to fight, bro, you want to hurt people."

Friends fighting each other is nothing new in MMA, especially outside of the title picture. In rare cases, pairs of elite fighters have made it clear that they won't do it unless they absolutely have to. Take former and current UFC bantamweight champions Aljamain Sterling and Merab Dvalishvili as the most recent example. But Walker and Guskov are still trying to earn shot-caller status in the light heavyweight ranks.

In the end, it's you or them — so Walker had no choice but to accept for UFC 311, no matter how reluctant he was.

"Imagine if you fight — the relationship is never going to be the same again," Walker said. "Because I don't want to go get hurt and not provide for my family, my baby. They come first. So whoever I'm fighting, I don't f***ing give a f*** — I'm going to go in there to knock them out, to choke them out, and if [I] go to the arm, if they don't tap, I'm going to f***ing break their arm. I have to be a little bit vicious — [but] I don't have these feelings between me and Bogdan. It's not an interesting fight for me just because the relationship, right?

"UFC offered it to me a few times. I said, 'No, no, no,' but there wasn't another option [for UFC 311], which is sad but OK, whatever, let's go. It was really hard, but it's life."

Fortunately for both, the situation has run its course, at least for the time being. Guskov has won three straight with his latest victory over Elekana, while Walker remains in search of his first win since a May 2023 unanimous decision over Anthony Smith.

Walker, 32, has been a consummate finisher inside the Octagon, winning all but two of his 21 career victories inside the distance. Standing 6-foot-5, Walker is one of the bigger light heavyweights, so he may not stay as light as he did this previous camp for his next fight. Having also fought at heavyweight in the past, he sees a potential return to the big-boy division coming sooner rather than later.

"I'm in my prime now physically," Walker said. "I can hold my prime for — I don't know — hopefully, four or five years, and then you start decreasing, but you have more experience anyway. But I'm 32 — I think I'm 32 — I feel like 25, 20. I feel very good. I will try maybe one more year, two more years on light heavyweight, and then I don't want to cut weight after that. It's hard. I like to eat. If I go heavyweight, I can get big. I can go like 260 [pounds] if I want, 265. When I'm off [camp] with abs, six pack, I can be 245. I'm 237 now because I was cutting weight to do this fight.

"So I'm a natural heavyweight as well. I'm going to probably go to heavyweight in maybe one year and a half, two years, but if anybody needs to fight in heavyweight and somebody gets hurt here, I'm in Vegas — I just can go replace somebody as well. No diet. Easy."

Walker's rib injury was the first in his 31-fight career, and he still doesn't know why it occurred. Walker recalled rolling with one of his training partners before he was caught in a guillotine. When escaping, Walker heard a popping sound in his ribs. Ultimately, the pain was too much to overcome.

"I couldn't do nothing, because if you've ever hurt your ribs, it's very limiting," he said. "Like all of the motions that you do in the fight depends on your ribs, core-wise. I just couldn't do much and I was so upset, because bro, I trained so hard. I went to Gilroy, [California] — I trained with [Daniel Cormier]. I trained a lot at Xtreme [Couture]. I moved countries for this fight to do my training camp here and get new coaching, new training partners, a lot of investment. Then, boom, this happened. No fight."

Walker went through his UFC 311 camp trying to keep his weight lower than usual, which he believes may have hindered his recovery ability due to decreased caloric intake. But now Walker has recovered and is ready to enter the Octagon whenever possible — ideally just not against Guskov.

"Hopefully, I can come back maybe around April," Walker said.

"I want to try to fight maybe two, three more times this year."