[autotag]Dan Hooker[/autotag] is ready to start taking on big names again.
Hooker (22-12 MMA, 12-8 UFC) picked up his second consecutive win this past Saturday at UFC 290 when he rallied to defeat Jalin Turner in a Fight of the Night effort.
The grueling battle with Turner left Hooker with a broken arm and a facial fracture to his right cheek area. “The Hangman,” who has competed against the likes of current lightweight champion Islam Makhachev and Dustin Poirier, hopes to draw a compelling name for his next outing – and would love for it to be at home.
“I heard 2024 they’re coming back to New Zealand, back to Auckland,” Hooker told Submission Radio. “So, if I could drag that back to New Zealand, back to Auckland and get like a big-name fight, that would be cool. That would be cool next. Yeah, like something big, something big. But I think I’ve only got … that next one, that’s the last fight of my contract. So yeah, it’s time to sit down with the boys at the UFC and get something big next and get another contract underway.”
Hooker has fought in New Zealand three times, scoring a first-round TKO of Ian Entwistle in his UFC debut, knocking out Ross Pearson in 2017, then outlasting Paul Felder in a main event in 2020.
If the UFC returns to New Zealand next year, Hooker wants a fight that would excite the fans.
“Yeah, it would need to be a big fight, because the stress of that is incredible,” Hooker said. “Especially coming off the performances like that. That’s three fights in Auckland. Fought on every single card, and they were all big wins. You know, first-round TKO, then the Pearson knockout, and then the absolute war with Paul Felder. So that’s three incredible performances. I feel like the expectations for coming back to Auckland are enormous. So, it’s like, you need a dance partner that warranted that excitement.
“I feel like you’d need a dance partner where it’s either one of those guys that’s like super exciting that the fans are just like, man, this is going to deliver 100 percent. Or you need an opponent that’s going to tickle the fans’ balls. You know what I mean? Be like, ‘Ooh, I don’t know if he could beat that guy.’ You know what I mean? Like, it needs to be a big, exciting fight. If we’re going to pack out … oh, I think we easily pack out the arena in New Zealand. I think that’s a sellout. That’s hands down a sellout.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 290.