- Dan Hooker commented on Alexander Volkanovski’s situation following his KO loss to Ilia Topuria at UFC 298
- “The Hangman” said the UFC scratched Dricus du Plessis vs. Isreal Adesanya off the UFC 300 card
Dan Hooker shared his honest thoughts on Alexander Volkanovski’s current situation and revealed that the UFC was planning to add Dricus du Plessis vs. Israel Adesanya to UFC 300.
Volk needs rest
Speaking on Sky Sport NZ, “The Hangman” came clean about what he thinks his City Kickboxing teammate should do at this point of his career. For Hooker, “The Great” should stop stressing himself from proving that he is the best featherweight in the world as he clearly is. Instead, Volk should take some time off and bounce back stronger.
“What he really needs to do is not think about any of that whatsoever. Can he beat Ilia Topuria? Of course he can. Can he beat Islam Makhachev? We’ve seen it, like of course he can but that’s it, you roll the dice ten times and you come up snake eyes once out of ten. That’s just the sport, the better fighter doesn’t always win the contest on the night. The title picture will completely change and Volk needs to take a good amount of time off like 8, 10, 12, like I would say 10-12 months off before we see him back in the Octagon. That’s what he needs to do for himself,” Hooker said of Volk.
Izzy was supposed to face DDP at 300
Hooker also dropped a truth bomb by revealing that as far as he knew, Adesanya, who is also his City Kickboxing teammate, was already training for UFC 300 against Du Plessis. However, the fight did not materialize as “Stillknocks” turned it down.
“It’s a good fight they scratched together,” Hooker said of Izzy vs. DDP at UFC 300. “I want to know, I want Dana to come out and say that what had all gone on behind the scenes because as far as I knew, Israel was stepping up to fight in that 300 slot.”
For “The Hangman,” he is not in the position to criticize Du Plessis as the middleweight champ had some respectable reasons for rejecting the fight with Izzy.
“I feel like Dricus, that was going to be a big ask after the five rounds he had with Strickland, he took a lot of damage in that Strickland fight. And yeah, he turned the title fight down before. He was supposed to fight Israel in Sydney when [Izzy] fought Strickland. But he had, like, a niggle, he had an injury, and he wasn’t prepared to take that risk,” Hooker explained.
“I was not surprised at all that he wasn’t prepared to rush back and take that risk for UFC 300,” he added. “Can I criticize him for it? I can’t really, cuz it worked out in his favor the last time. He’s now the one walking around with the title. So can I criticize? ‘You should want to fight at UFC 300 with half a training camp!’ I can’t, I can’t criticize him.”
As it stands, UFC 300 will be headlined by the light heavyweight title fight between Alex Pereira and Jamahal Hill. On the other hand, Volkanovski is yearning for a rematch with Topuria and his team got his back all the way.
Watch Hooker’s full video below:
