Longtime UFC lightweight contender Dan Hooker plans on propelling himself back up the rankings and right into the lightweight championship picture, starting with an attention-grabbing victory at UFC 290.
Hooker takes on Jalin Turner in a lightweight main card bout that he sees as a big opportunity to thrust himself back into the discussion at the sharp end of the UFC’s talent-stacked 155-pound division.
“Oh, it definitely puts me back in the mix,” he told Submission Radio ahead of the matchup.
“You get a win like that over Turner, you’re back in the top 10, you’re back in the mix. You’re back. People are back on a bandwagon.
“That’s just the beauty of this, it’s the beauty of the sport. You can change your life in a single night. And, that’s kind of where I feel like things are going here. I’m just excited for that, I’m excited for the contest and I’m excited for how everyone responds to it. But I already know how it’s gonna go. There’s no question in my mind of how this might go.”
A bona-fide veteran of the Octagon, New Zealand’s Hooker has been there, seen it and done it on the big stage, and has shared the cage with some of the sport’s big names. That level of experience has helped him to understand and recognize aspects of the sport that help him to visualize how a bout will potentially pan out, and prepare accordingly.
“That’s the beauty, boys, what I see in my mind, what I visualize in my mind is the picture I get to go out there and paint,” he explained.
“And so, it’s what I see now, but I can’t show you a sneak peek just yet. You gotta wait and see. You gotta buy the pay-per-views and you gotta wait to see the picture, the masterpiece I’m working on.”
The night will also mark the occasion of Hooker’s 21st fight in the UFC, and the Kiwi joked that it could provide the opportunity for a UFC first.
“I was thinking that. Happy 21st!” he said
“Yeah, I might have to get a yard glass from somewhere! I’ll do the first ‘yardie’ in the Octagon. Happy 21st!”
The occasion also had him looking back at his Octagon debut as a 24-year-old back in 2014, and the Kiwi laughed as he recalled his experience of getting ready for his first UFC bout.
“I was just thinking, “10 grand. I get 10 grand for this!” I was just like, absolutely mind blown,” he said.
“When I won that fight, and I think it was like, 14, 15 grand, it got changed to. I remember showing my missus. We’d only been going out for about a month back then, and I remember showing my missus. I had like 15 grand in the bank account from getting paid, and I was like, ‘Check this out, babe! Look, we made it!’”
Hooker will share the fight card with fellow Antipodean star, Alexander Volkanovski, with the Aussie set to put his featherweight title on the line against interim champion Yair Rodriguez in the main event. It’s a matchup Hooker sees Volkanovski dominating in a similar way Frankie Edgar did when he faced Rodriguez earlier in the Mexican’s career.
“I haven’t been training with him or seen like any strategy for his camp, but I think once he closes the distance on Yair, yeah, that’ll be hard,” he said.
“Obviously, Yair is really good out long, and then on the ground as well. If you give him space, he’s quite dangerous. But once Volk buries his forehead in your chest, you’re in a bit of trouble. So yeah, I see it a bit of a Frankie Edgar vs. Yair performance, I think.”