Dan Hooker, team captain at Auckland’s City Kickboxing, won’t be fighting at featherweight any more. Hooker recently revealed to Submission Radio that his move to featherweight was an attempt to disrupt his losing streak at lightweight, but that came to an end with a first-round loss to Arnold Allen at UFC London in March.
“Oh, f*** no, I couldn’t make featherweight if I wanted to. I’m closer to middleweight than I am to featherweight. I felt like I could’ve stayed at 145, but obviously a lot of sacrifice goes into that. But off of the result of the last fight, I feel like I’m in the exact same position at both weight classes. So why not? Why would I make the extra sacrifice?
Dan Hooker “Put a Fork” in Fighting at Featherweight
The extra sacrifice was to get me back in the same position that I was in. But if I’m in the exact same position [as I’m in at lightweight], I’d rather be in the exact same position and eating, and having a slice of cake every now and then.”
Put a fork in it, bud, I’m out of the conversation [at featherweight].” Hooker, at 32 years old, needs a win on his record as soon as possible. Although the Kiwi fighter is taking some time out of the Octagon for the moment, he, as usual, is more than willing to step up and take on the fighters nobody else wants.
“I’m just chilling. I should have a good amount of time off, I should just have a good reset. That’s one thing I realized as well: I’ve just been kind of chasing my tail the last couple of years.
I’ve just put the shovel down. I’m still in, like, shovel down mode. I’m thinking, f***, how do I get out of this situation? We’ll see, maybe when the UFC comes a little bit closer [in location to me].”
It’ll be [against] whoever it’s going to be. Obviously, I have my inklings, but it’ll be like all those other situations. You run back and you look at who I’ve fought, you just look at the division and ask yourself, ‘Who don’t people want to fight?’ That’s who I’ll probably end up fighting. Who’s getting turned down left right and center? That’s who I’ll fight next. So, you can take a look at the division, ask yourself who doesn’t anyone want to fight, that’s the guy.
I can get back in the mix, I can get back in the mix in a heartbeat. You can’t count a dog like me out of the game. That’s just not how it works.” Do you think Dan Hooker will fare better back at 155 pounds? Let us know in the comments.
