Balter Walker has pulled off one thing so uncommon in UFC historical past that few fighters have achieved it earlier than him. In 2025, the Brazilian heavyweight grew to become the primary fighter in historical past to win three consecutive heel hook submissions in a 12 months, and has now received 4 in a row.
balter walker heel hook
Walker’s successful streak started in August 2024 towards Junior Tafa at UFC 305 in Perth, Australia, when he caught Tafa with a heel hook 4:56 into spherical one. Tafa screamed in ache as a substitute of tapping, forcing referee Steve Percival to cease the match. What adopted was pure drama, with Tafa slapping Walker after the choice, gagging him, and flipping the chicken through the official announcement. Walker responded with trash discuss within the postgame interview, however the true discuss got here within the subsequent sport.
At UFC Combat Night time 251 in February 2025, Walker eradicated Don’Tail Mays with a heel hook in 77 seconds. Walker instantly went for a takedown, knocking Mays to the bottom and grabbing one in all his legs, ending the match. Mays, now 33, has misplaced three of his previous 4 contests, however that hasn’t diminished the pace with which Walker has completed him. Based on Brazilian media studies after the match, Walker anticipated Mays to strive more durable and was stunned by how straightforward the victory was.
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Then got here UFC Nashville in July 2025. Walker confronted Kennedy Nizechuk on the preliminary card and blitzed him early, securing a submission in simply 54 seconds whereas mendacity on his again. This second was historic. Walker grew to become the primary fighter in UFC historical past to report three consecutive heel hook submission wins. He was doing it sooner every time. It took 5 minutes from August to Tafa. The match towards Mays in February took 1 minute and 17 seconds. It took 54 seconds within the match towards Nizechuk in July. This progress can’t be ignored.
Moreover, at UFC 321 in October, he landed a heel hook on Louis Sutherland simply 1 minute 24 seconds into the primary spherical. This will likely be his fourth consecutive heel hook, and his third in 2025.
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(@FullViolence)The significance goes past numbers. The heel hook is a submission method that targets the knee and requires particular positioning and an understanding of leverage to execute correctly. For years within the heavyweight division, these had been thought of unrealistic. Heavyweights lack the mobility and suppleness of lightweights, and leglock submissions have traditionally been dangerous and sometimes ineffective. When Walker first began emphasizing heel hooks in his coaching, he confronted backlash from everybody round him.
“Nobody believed I may do this, as a result of at heavyweight you do not have as a lot mobility on the bottom,” Walker defined. “Once I began doing it, everybody round me mentioned, ‘This does not work at heavyweight.’
“I advised everybody, be careful for footlocks, and I’ve extra,” Walker mentioned straight in regards to the heavyweight in his post-fight interview after defeating Nzechukwu.
Three completely different opponents carried out the identical submission thrice, all ending in spherical one. Though Walker’s hanging continues to evolve, his skill to safe takedowns and execute submissions has confirmed too troublesome to counter. The challenges at the moment dealing with the sector are clear. Both decide to important coaching to defend towards leglocks, or danger turning into the subsequent sufferer on the spotlight reel.
His youthful brother, Johnny Walker, is a UFC gentle heavyweight contender who’s ranked No. 12 in his weight class as of August 2025. Balter got here to the UFC with a debut loss to Łukasz Brzeski in April 2024, however has since racked up three straight wins, every yet one more spectacular than the final. He is now not the man looking for his footing, he is change into the man everybody else wants to search out.
