There is some progress for Dan Hooker in his attempts to fight at UFC 266 next week.
Hooker takes on Nasrat Haqparast in a lightweight bout at the UFC 266 pay-per-view event taking place September 25 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
However, the New Zealander revealed Thursday that his visa application and passport was still with the US Embassy in his home country as he sent a plea to the official Embassy account.
“Hi Kevin, apologies for messaging on here but it’s a last resort. My visa is with the US embassy here in NZ as I fight next week in Las Vegas on #UFC266 Update today is it won’t be approved until next week due to lock down which will cancel my fight. Please help. 🙏”
@USAmbNZ Hi Kevin, apologies for messaging on here but it's a last resort.
My visa is with the US embassy here in NZ as I fight next week in Las Vegas on #UFC266
Update today is it won't be approved until next week due to lock down which will cancel my fight. Please help. 🙏
— Dan Hangman Hooker (@danthehangman) September 16, 2021
The entire MMA world — particularly MMA Twitter — rallied to get Hooker’s case in the radar of the Embassy, and one day is all it took for there to be a somewhat positive update.
Hooker shared the following on Friday:
“And we are in with a shot….they have granted me an appointment Monday. All goes well and I get my passport back, I can jump on the only flight out of NZ Thursday night. Arrive in Vegas Thursday night, weigh in Friday morning, fight Saturday. ✌️”
And we are in with a shot….they have granted me an appointment Monday. All goes well and I get my passport back, I can jump on the only flight out of NZ Thursday night.
Arrive in Vegas Thursday night, weigh in Friday morning, fight Saturday. ✌️#MMATwitter 🙏🙏🙏 pic.twitter.com/37l4Ajfba7
— Dan Hangman Hooker (@danthehangman) September 17, 2021
Hooker Has Fingers Crossed
Of course, nothing is confirmed yet.
Hooker still has to get his visa approved at his appointment and even if he does, he will certainly have a crazy fight week ahead.
“I got MMA Twitter behind me, I got people behind me which was awesome,” Hooker told Ryan McKinell. “It seems like it’s had some sort of message because I got a message. … My flight is tomorrow — that is not going to happen. I have a visa appointment Monday New Zealand time so that’s Sunday in the US. They said, ‘absolutely no promises, you come in for a visa appointment.’
“If that does happen, which I have my fingers absolutely crossed that I get my visa approved Monday which means I’ll probably get it back Tuesday, in New Zealand, there are only flights tomorrow which is Sunday or Thursday. So the plan going forward — go to my appointment Monday, get my visa Tuesday, fly out Thursday and arrive in the US Thursday in Las Vegas about 8pm. Weigh in Friday, fight Saturday, that’s the plan!”
Hopefully, things go smoothly for Hooker and he’s able to fight Haqparast in addition to having as much of a hassle-free fight week as possible.
You can watch the clip below:
📽️ "I have my fingers absolutely crossed that I get my visa approved Monday."@danthehangman shares an update on the visa issues threatening his fight at #UFC266 & the CRAZY week ahead of him if everything goes to plan🤞🏼@RyanMcKinnell
FULL INTERVIEW⏬https://t.co/xpgF09Yu6n pic.twitter.com/6Rr7kRo28x
— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) September 17, 2021
