If there were any nerves that featherweight prospect Latoya Walker felt heading into her Invicta FC debut last year, they were quickly dissipated as soon as her fight with Peggy Morgan started.
“It’s kind of one of those fights where you’re nervous, but once you’re in the cage and the first punch is thrown, you don’t think about of any of the other stuff,” Walker told MMAWeekly.com.
“It felt good. My coaches were able to come up with a game plan and I was able to execute.”
Since turning pro in late 2011, Walker feels her game has developed as she would have liked, even though she’s not always been able to display it in front of crowds.
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“We’ve expanded and worked on some stuff,” said Walker. “We definitely worked on my wrestling a lot more. That’s picked up, even though I wasn’t able to showcase any of that in my last fight.”
Though she has more abilities than people have seen, sometimes that can be a good thing according to Walker.
“That way if your opponents ever look at your footage, they only see what you’ve showcased during your fights,” Walker said.
Walker (5-0) returns to Invicta for the first time in over a year to take on veteran Charmaine Tweet (8-5) in a main card featherweight bout on Saturday in Costa Mesa, Calif.
“As far as getting the win, I have to pressure her,” Walker said of facing Tweet. “I’ve got to keep moving and not standing in front of her, those types of things.
“I think it will be good to show where I’m at with (my game).”
With Cris “Cyborg” Justino moving over to the UFC, Walker might be closer to a featherweight title shot than she’s been before, even if she feels that match should have happened already.
“I was pretty much hoping to be fighting (Justino) versus Charmaine, because I feel that I’ve progressed enough to where I deserve a shot,” said Walker.
“(Otherwise) I pretty much take it one fight at a time and let my coaches’ plan and figure out the rest.”
(Photo courtesy of Scott Hirano)