Dan Hooker has recently struggled, losing four of his last five fights. His most recent two losses came from an ill-advised last-minute match against Islam Makhachev and an effort to box at featherweight. He has now decided that he must start “playing the game” better.
Hooker claimed that he was letting his coaches decide who and when he would fight next in a new interview with Submission Radio. He stated:
“When you take care of yourself you can move pretty quickly. All these opportunities come up, and I would jump on all these opportunities. But then you see the guys ahead of you playing the game very smart and getting further. And it’s not like they’re any more skillful or better or levels ahead of you, bu they’re just playing the game a lot smarter. When you’ve got a guy fighting for a title and he’s coming off the back of two good stylistic match-ups on short notice, that’s wild… So it’s just funny when you step back and observe that and think well, maybe I have all the skills and I just need to play the game like everyone else is playing it.”
Tony Ferguson receives criticism from Dan Hooker for his flimsy comeback
After suffering a terrible first-round knockout loss to Arnold Allen in March 2022, Dan Hooker decided to retire from featherweight. Tony Ferguson has received criticism from “The Hangman” for returning at 155 pounds in recent tweets.
In an interview with Submission Radio, Hooker outlined his motivations for challenging “El Cucuy”:
“That’s a big fight. Tony is like, a big fight. A win for either one of us puts the other one right back in the mix. That’s where you wanna be. I am not here to make up the numbers, I’m not here just to hunt out easy wins.”
Two years ago, the top two lightweight contenders were Tony Ferguson and Dan Hooker. They are now ranked 11th and 13th, respectively. Although a victory wouldn’t push either fighter back into the top five, it would still be a fantastic contest and a wonderful chance for the winner to start regaining ground.
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