If you haven't seen or heard the story about the last couple of weeks for Dan Hooker, you might not even believe it. The roots of the story go back several weeks into his training camp for his fight at UFC 266 against Nasrat Haqparast that Hooker won via unanimous decision. If you want to hear the story directly from the horse's mouth, you can watch or listen to it in two separate interviews he did with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. The first interview came before the fight (here) and the second came after the fight (here).
If you don't want to listen to the whole thing (approximately a half hour each), I will briefly summarize them here and then include the information that has come out since these interviews occurred. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, New Zealand, where Hooker lives full time, is in a lockdown type of situation. I do not know all of the details surrounding the exact situation, so I don't know exactly what is allowed and not allowed, but according to Hooker, he was not allowed at the City Kickboxing gym where he would typically prepare for his fights. He also mentioned that he was not even allowed to train in the gym he owns even if he was the only person in the building. Obviously, not having access to a proper gym is a less than ideal way to prepare for a fight of any kind, even if Hooker is a better fighter than Haqparast, which I think most people believe he is. This whole situation with the gym and training really isn't even connected to the issue he talks about the majority of the time, that is just the overlying blanket of adversity he had to deal with the whole fight camp. As we approached fight week, Hooker took to social media in an attempt to get a meeting that would allow him to get a visa to come to the United States to fight and then come back home to New Zealand afterwards. Hooker gives a lot of detail in the first interview with Ariel, but the crux of what he says is that he was unsure if he was actually going to be able to travel to the US for the fight. The social media pressure from MMA fans was enough to get Hooker a meeting on Monday of fight week and he was approved to be able to leave and return to New Zealand. However, Hooker would not be able to fly out of New Zealand until Thursday because Covid-19 restrictions have resulted in only two flights from New Zealand to the United States per week. When Hooker did the first interview with Ariel on Wednesday of fight week, he was still at his home in New Zealand. This left Hooker in a situation where he would be forced to get on the flight on Thursday, come all the way to Las Vegas from New Zealand, weigh in on Friday morning, then fight on Saturday night. He even says that the UFC was willing to push his fight to the following week so that he would have time to adjust to the time zone difference and make sure he cut weight safely, but this was not an option because if Hooker were to stay until the following Saturday, he would not be able to get back into New Zealand due to the way the visa and return voucher system is set up. Like a true fighter and professional, there were no complaints from Hooker and he weighed in under the 156 lbs limit and proceeded to win the fight vs Haqparast, who had his own visa issues.
If the story were to end here, it would still be a fantastic story that represents why some many people gravitate towards MMA and the athletes. Hooker was already a little bit of a fan favorite and this story only led to the crowd at T-Mobile Arena being louder for him on his walk to the cage. Just when we thought this story ended with Hooker getting his hand raised on the prelims of the UFC 266 card, the story has one more twist. Former champion Rafael dos Anjos was forced to pull out of his fight with Islam Makhachev scheduled for UFC 267 on October 30. This fight seems destined to never take place as it has been booked and fallen through several times now. This was also unfortunate because Makhachev has really struggled to get the big time fight and opponent he has earned, which RDA definitely represented. As the UFC searched for a replacement, none other than Dan "Hangman" Hooker raised his hand to accept the fight, which has been made official. He is now unsure when he will return home to New Zealand and will remain in the US until he travels to Abu Dhabi for UFC 267 (as outlined by MMA Junkie here).
This post is nothing more than a tip of the cap to Dan Hooker. A fighter at heart, a guy willing to make big sacrifices to chase his dream. In modern sports, not necessarily MMA, but just sports in general, it sometimes feels like some of the athletes aren't as invested as the fans. This is not the case with a vast majority of MMA fighters, in large part due to the fact that anything less than 100% devotion could have horrible consequences. Regardless, this is one of those moments when it is clear that an athlete cares just as much as we do. Dan Hooker is everything we love about mixed martial arts. The grind. The blood, sweat, tears, and hard work. He's willing to do whatever it takes to succeed and I'm not going to be the one to tell him he can't. I wish him the best of luck next month against Islam because that is as tough a fight as there is in the lightweight division. I'm sure I'll talk more about that fight as we get closer but for now, I think I speak for all of us fans when I say: Thank you Hangman. You are embodying the reason we all love this sport so much.
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