Valter Walker was best known for being Johnny Walker’s brother when he first joined the UFC back in 2024, but he’s now earning a notorious reputation for his nasty heel hook submission, which has finished his last four opponents in a row.

And now Walker has shared the secret behind his deadly finishing move, and it appears to be more about mentality than technical ability.

“The secret of the heel hook, I’ll tell you now — I see many guys in the UFC try to do the heel hook and it don’t work. Why?” Walker told MMA Fighting. “Because they take the heel hook, first they don’t believe this is going to work and second, they [want] their opponent to tap. When I go for the heel hook, I go for broke. I don’t go for my opponent to tap.

“If you see my face, every time when I take the heel hook, my face, I’m doing a lot of power,” Walker continued. “Because I’m trying to break his leg. Because if my opponent doesn’t tap, the leg is going to break. Every time, when I [grab the heel hook], I feel the knee crack and the foot crack. The last four fights, I feel everybody’s foot crack. Because I go for broke. This is the secret.

“I don’t think about making you tap. I think about breaking your leg. My coach tells me all the time, don’t go for tap, go for broke. In the gym, go for tap. All the time when I’m in the gym, I go for the tap, they defend. In the gym, I go for a tap, they start to defend. In the fight, I do it and you see how it works.”

It’s a style that sounds reminiscent of fellow Brazilian fighter Rousimar Palhares, who over a decade ago was among the UFC’s most feared fighters due to his gruesome leg lock game that led to a flurry of heel hook and occasional kneebar finishes and left some of his opponents badly injured.

However, the powerfully built Palhares also developed a bad reputation for not letting go of his nasty finishing moves even when the referee tried to intervene, leading to suspensions and ultimately being ejected from the promotion.

Walker doesn’t appear to be looking to take things that far though.

“You can tap or scream,” Walker said. “I wait for the referee to stop it but the last time, I feel like I broke his leg. The last two times, I feel it could break but I feel like I don’t need to do that. I go for broke and when I feel his leg crack, I already [stop a little bit] because when it cracks, you cannot kick anymore and it’s going to break.

“I don’t need break this guy’s career for six months or maybe one year. I just put my mind on I go for broke.”