UFC: Dan Hooker Names Two Potential Opponents For His Return
After a devastating loss at the hands of Michael Chandler at UFC 257, Dan Hooker is itching to get back inside the Octagon, and has named two potential opponents in Justin Gaethje and Rafael dos Anjos.
Hooker suffered a brutal first-round TKO loss to Chandler in the UFC 257 co-main event. After the fight, ‘The Hangman’ had to spend a month in the UAE and then two weeks quarantining in New Zealand due to COVID protocols, before he was finally able to reunite with his family.
Itching For A Fight
Speaking with SCMP MMA‘s John Hyon Ko, Hooker said that he’s fully recovered and ready to go again.
“After a loss like that, of course, it’s disheartening,” Hooker said. “That burning flame gets kinda extinguished for a bit and it goes back down to an ember. But the ember slowly starts burning again, and it starts getting bigger and turning into a fire. That’s just like that never ending cycle of being a competitive martial artist.
“You get disheartened, the flame goes out. The ember burns bright again and turns back into a flame and you’re itching to fight. I feel like I’m in a position now where my body is healthy. I’ve had a good amount of time off. I’ve recovered well. Recovered like real quickly. I’m starting to get itchy.”
Two Possible Matchups
With most lightweights ranked above him already booked to fight, Hooker doesn’t have a lot of options at his disposal, with Gaethje and dos Anjos the only two opponents that make sense for him. However, he doesn’t expect ‘The Highlight’ to fight him.
“Obviously, there’s only two real names out there at the moment and that’s Gaethje or RDA,” Hooker said. “Gaethje, I feel will sit and wait. His most recent defeat is to Khabib [Nurmagmedov]. Like a lot of people, if you give that enough time, he’ll brush that off.
“Gaethje right now is in a position for a huge opportunity. It would be dangerous for him to fight a guy like RDA. It’ll be very dangerous for him to fight a guy like me and give me an opportunity to jump the queue again and get in a position like that.
“That’s a fight I would like [against dos Anjos]. That’s a former champion. Coming back beating [Paul] Felder. He did incredible in that fight. Behind Gaethje, [he] would be number one on my list.”
Timeline For Next Fight
The City Kickboxing representative however says that when he fights next is more important than who he fights, as he wants to compete on the same card as his teammates.
“I don’t really care who it is,” Hooker said. “I don’t really care if he’s ranked higher or lower. My next fight will come down to the time frame. I said after the last fight I was out of [sequence] with my team. I was fighting and then my team was fighting for the last few times, so I’ve been a little out of whack.
“When my team is ready to fight. Maybe the next time Israel [Adesanya] fights. It’s a lot easier for us to fight, to travel, and move as a team. You know with the quarantines, with the booking and isolation, it’s pretty difficult for us to get out [of New Zealand]. And you can see in the last two performances that that’s been really impacting me inside of the cage.”
Who would you rather see Dan Hooker fight, Justin Gaethje or Rafael dos Anjos?
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