Dan
Hooker began his career at featherweight, but after an
unsuccessful return to 145 pounds in March, it sounds like he’ll be
competing at lightweight for the foreseeable future.
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Hooker is coming off a first-round technical knockout loss to
Arnold
Allen in a featherweight bout at UFC Fight Night 204 in London
on March 19. That move came on the heels of a stretch in which he
lost three of four lightweight appearances. Ultimately, Hooker
decided the effort needed to make 145 pounds wasn’t worth it.
“I felt like I could’ve stayed at 145, but obviously a lot of
sacrifice goes into that,” Hooker said on Submission Radio.
“But off of the result of the last fight, and then I feel like I’m
in the exact same position at both weight classes – so why not? Why
would I make the extra sacrifice? The extra sacrifice was to get me
back in the same position that I was in. You know what I mean? But
if I’m in the exact same position, I’d rather be in the exact same
position and eating and having a slice of cake every now and
then.”
With losses in four of his last five Octagon appearances, Hooker
doesn’t necessarily have his next opponent in mind. However, he
expects it’ll inevitably be a difficult matchup, whoever it might
be.
“It’ll be whoever it’s going to be,” Hooker said. “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? And that’s who
I’ll probably end up fighting.
“Like, 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.
That’s why I’m not that fussed about. 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.”