UFC featherweight returner, Dan Hooker has revealed that he was unaware when putting pen to paper on a March 19. division return against the streaking Arnold Allen that he would be heading to enemy territory for the UFC Fight Night London card.
Hooker, who is set to make his first featherweight foray since November 2016, still occupies the #8 rank in the official lightweight pile, however, attempts to bring an end to a run of three losses in his last four outings a division lower.
Most recently, Hooker featured on the main card of UFC 267 back in October on ‘Fight Island’ – replacing former lightweight champion, Rafael dos Anjos on short notice in a quickfire kimura loss against the streaking, Islam Makhachev.
Briefly returning to the winner’s enclosure back in September at UFC 266, Hooker managed to lodge an impressive unanimous decision triumph against Hamburg-born prospect, Nasrat Haqparast, which snapped a run of losses to both Michael Chandler, and former interim lightweight titleholder, Dustin Poirier.
Last week, the promotion confirmed Auckland native, Hooker was scheduled to make his featherweight division return on March 19. against the above mentioned, Allen – at a hugely stacked, UFC Fight Night London event at The O2 Arena.
However, according to Hooker, he was unaware when putting pen to paper on his bout agreement, that the fight was slated to take place in the United Kingdom.
“Sean Shelby messaged me, and said, ‘Hey, do you want to fight Arnold Allen (on) March 19?’” Dan Hooker said during a recent interview with The Mac Life. “And I said, ‘Hey, Kai (Kara-France) fights the following weekend, can we do it then?” And he said, ‘No, I can’t move him (Arnold Allen) off the state.’ And I was just like, oh, that’s weird, alright then, I tired. I tried to do something smart. And then I was telling my coaches and stuff, like, ‘Yeah, I’m fighting March 19. I took a fight.’ And they’re like, ‘Oh, the London card.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, the London card?’” I was like, ‘I didn’t know that when I accepted the fight.’”
“Once it got like, all rumors, as soon as it got chucked into the rumor mill, a lot of people from the U.K. are like messaging me and they’re just excited, cause I guess it’s very rare you get two international guys fighting on an overseas card,” Dan Hooker explained. “It’s like a rarity. Like an Australiasian to go over and fight someone from the U.K. is pretty uncommon. So I’m excited, man.”
For Ipswitch native, Allen, the surging #7 ranked contender notched his eighth consecutive UFC victory back in April at UFC on ABC 2, taking home a unanimous decision win against Sodiq Yusuff.
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