UFC lightweight and City Kickboxing team captain Dan Hooker discussed his recent losing streak, including a doomed move to featherweight, on this week’s episode of The MMA Hour. Hooker, who ordinarily trains alongside UFC champions Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski, discussed how his appetite for competition during the pandemic affected his ability to train, and therefore his fortunes inside the Octagon.
“I knew what I was doing with the cut down to featherweight. I just had it in the back of my head. It was an itch I needed to scratch, and also, I knew the risk and reward that was at play there. I knew that after a few losses at lightweight, I knew that I would have to wait until the landscape of the division changed before I’d get another shot at a top five opponent. So it was just a good time to go down there and roll the dice.”
Dan Hooker Has “No Regrets” About Failed Featherweight Bid, Reveals Potential Tony Ferguson Fight in the Works
Hooker discussed the impact of training half the world away from his usual environment. “Most of those camps were done either away from my coaches or away from my team. The results for the last year and half, two years, made me realize how important my coaches, how important my team is to the journey. It’s essential. Me being young and dumb and full of it, you just want to get out there, and you back yourself, you think you can do it.
I thought I could just do it on my own. I thought I could go over there and do it, fight the best guys in the world under these kind of circumstances, but that just truly made me realize how important it is to invest in my team and invest in my coaches completely. So that’s what I’ve done.”
Another option for Hooker is another fan favorite on a losing streak, Tony Ferguson. “I’ve been chewing at the bit to fight since August,” Hooker said. “One they said, ‘Tony Ferguson’s a good fight,’ I was like, ‘Can I get after it?!’ and they gave me the green light to try and get that fight, or try and get after that fight.
So it’s not necessarily that I was holding my breath, dying to fight Tony Ferguson. I was just dying to fight absolutely anyone, since August. That’s a long time for me to wait, and I feel like me in the past, if I was managing myself, I would have been here in August and perhaps not under the best circumstances.
Me then to now, it just lights a fire. This is the longest time off between fights that I’ve ever had in my entire life and I am absolutely chomping at the bit to get back in there.”
What’s next for Dan Hooker? Let us know in the comments.
