Dan Hooker plans to emerge as a legitimate lightweight title contender by winning at UFC 290.
On July 8, Hooker returns to the Octagon hoping to continue building momentum. ‘The Hagman’ last fought in November 2022, defeating Claudio Puelles with a body kick in the second round. The New Zealand-born fighter is now matched up against Jalin Turner, who is coming off a devastating split-decision loss against Mateusz Gamrot.
Hooker recently did an interview for Israel Adesanya’s YouTube channel. ‘The Hangman’ had this to say about what he gets with a win against Turner:
“Back in the mix. This is a fight that puts me back in the mix. This is not anyone unranked or someone coming up. I feel like this fight is a true tipping point. It’s time to go out there and prove I belong in there with the best guys. This fight for me is to go out there and prove that I still have the potential to win a world title because I’ve said that many times. If I don’t think that a world title is in the mix then what’s the point of even doing it and that’s how I truly feel.”
On March 4, Jalin Turner looked to continue climbing the UFC lightweight rankings against Mateusz Gamrot after winning five consecutive fights inside the distance. After three hard-fought rounds, ‘The Tarantunla’ thought he did enough to get his hand raised before ‘Gamer’ emerged victorious.
The 6’3” lightweight hopes to get back on track against the always dangerous Dan Hooker. Meanwhile, the number eleven-ranked Hooker plans to crack the top ten by taking out Turner, the number ten-ranked UFC lightweight.
Dan Hooker explains why he wanted to fight Jalin Turner
Dan Hooker has never been afraid of fighting anyone offered to him. Although the same is true with Jalin Turner, Hooker had several reasons for signing on the dotted line. During the same interview on Israel Adesanya’s YouTube channel, ‘The Hangman’ had this to say about why he wanted to fight Turner:
“Jalin Turner is one of the best, and I take nothing off the kid. I want to fight him because he’s one of the very best fighters and he has a lot of fighters turning down when they see his name on a contract, that makes me excited to fight someone in the top ten, to be potentially back in the mix, and to put yourself a couple wins back away from a title is exactly why I wanna have this fight.”
Hooker vs. Turner isn’t the only must-see fight at UFC 290, which takes place inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. In the co-main event, Brandon Moreno looks to extend his UFC flyweight title run by defeating Alexandre Pantoja. The night will end with Alexander Volkanovski defending his featherweight title in the main event against Yair Rodriguez.
