Dan Hooker commended Islam Makhachev for going after the biggest dog in the neighborhood on his own turf.
After dropping four out of five bouts, Dan Hooker believes he has started a new chapter of his career with a second-round TKO over Claudio Puelles at UFC 281 in November. Finally back in the win column, ‘Hangman’ is in the gym and preparing for his next outing which he hopes will be UFC 284 when the promotion invades the RAC Arena in Perth, Australia.
That card is scheduled to be headlined by a massive champion vs. champion showdown. Newly crowned lightweight king Islam Makhachev will defend his title against the reigning 145-pound champion and No. 1 ranked pound-for-pound fighter in the world, Alexander Volkanovski. In an interview with Freestylebender on YouTube, Hooker shared his thoughts on the world title clash scheduled for February 11 and commended Makhachev for being a fighting champion.
“Yeah, that’s a difficult fight for Makhachev. It’s a credit to him. I think the biggest hesitation for [Makhachev] being a champion was he would not be as active as a lot of other champions, but for him to get on the microphone and straight after their fight (with Charles Oliveira) and call for another fight.
“And not only call for another fight in his own territory but fly a very long distance. They don’t usually take those kinds of risks. They’re kinda U.S. or close to home. For them to fly that far over the world and to take on a tough test on (Volkanovski’s) home soil. I tip my hat to Makhachev.”
Don’t mean to alarm anyone, but Dan Hooker said fight camp 👀 pic.twitter.com/k7U1cUpXiH
— Christopher Reive (@ChrisReive) January 3, 2023
As for how things go when Makhachev meets Volkanovski inside the Octagon next month, Hooker was unable to give a prediction for the bout but believes that the Dagestani destroyer is in for a very tough fight against the pound-for-pound best in the world.
“Volk’s a very difficult man to get down and even harder to keep there. I think [Makhachev] is in for a tough fight.”
