Herschel Walker takes time to challenge Dana White on ESPN

Promoted to the Front Page by Zak Woods

Earlier I came across a follow-up to Herschel Walker's interview on ESPN First Take at MMA Junkie. 

To the casual sports fan, Herschel Walker's appearance on today's edition of "ESPN First Take" was probably a bit confusing. 

On ESPN2's daily morning sports show, the 47-year-old NFL veteran championed mixed martial arts and made some boastful claims about his talent level – but forgot to mention a single time that he had been signed by Strikeforce.

Instead, the conversation mostly focused on the UFC and Walker's open challenge to fight company president Dana White.

Earlier this month Strikeforce announced that Walker, the 1982 Heisman Award winner, had been signed to the organization and would make his MMA debut as a heavyweight in early 2010. However, "ESPN First Take" host Jay Crawford never made mention of Strikeforce and simply said that Walker was making his "MMA" debut. The aspiring fighter never mentioned it either.

Sadly, it was a missed opportunity for Walker and Strikeforce to plug an organization that's built a lot of momentum in recent months with a new CBS deal, solid roster additions and a couple successful shows.

Instead, Walker focused on White's recent criticism of the signing, as well as "The Ultimate Fighter 10."

Walker said he had to give White and UFC co-owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta their "props" for bringing the sport "mainstream." But he said that while White may be able to evaluate fighters, the UFC executive can't do the same with general athletes.

Walker then made his biggest claim of the interview when talking about the current heavyweights-only season of "The Ultimate Fighter."

"I'll put dimes to donuts all the heavyweights on the show right now I will beat," Walker said of the cast, which includes a former IFL champion, thee former UFC fighters, four NFL vets and Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson. "And that's pretty easy to say."

But the challenges didn't stop there.

"Dana always tells people to put their money where your mouth is," Walker said. "And I'll tell Dana that since he says I'm so old, why doesn't step in the ring with me because he's been practicing (MMA), as well?"

Walker said all the money could go to charity, which he's doing with his Strikeforce fight purses. The funds go to Project Turn Around (also known as Alternative Community Development Services), a community-enrichment nonprofit organization.    -Dann Stupp

I didn't get to see it for myself, as I'm not much of a morning person... But it sounds like it didn't go so well for Scott Coker.