Dan Hooker unimpressed with stipulation for fight

By Christopher Reive

Dan Hooker was just as surprised as everyone when UFC president Dana White announced his next fight on social media last Wednesday.

The Kiwi lightweight knew he was fighting American Bobby Green in Austin, Texas, on December 3, but he was under the impression the fight would be the headliner.

White revealed Hooker would fight Green in the co-main event, but still scheduled for five rounds. In the UFC, five-round fights are reserved for main events and title fights, and it is very rare a bout that doesn’t fit that description is more than the usual three rounds.

Hooker was not impressed.

“That pissed me right off. It’s a funny one. You call up anyone and ask ‘you want to do twice as much work for the same money?’ No, brother. After three I’m going home,” Hooker told the Herald.

“The main event is five rounds. You can’t chuck it to co-main and still keep the five rounds. It’s just not a thing. It’s a sport of risk versus reward. You give me the main event and everything that comes with that. With winning a main event comes bigger opportunities and you get a lot more exposure – I love main events. But you’re not getting the same reward for equal risk. It just doesn’t make sense. They’re taking me for a bit of a donkey.”

It’s a fight that has many fans excited, as the stylistic matchup between Hooker and Green is a recipe for plenty of action. The bout is definitely worthy of being the showpiece of the card, however, the bout between Arman Tsarukyan and Beneil Dariush will get that spotlight.

It’s an understandable move as Tsaruykan (8) and Dariush (4) are higher in the lightweight rankings than Hooker (9) and Green (12), and one that Hooker saw the logic in, but didn’t see the logic in having to do the same amount of work for a lesser return.

Hooker is yet to sign a bout agreement for the fight with Green, however, the Herald understands the UFC is set on the fight being a five-rounder.

“I’m going to show up and fight, but it’s just a funny spot. It just really doesn’t spark my interest. That’s it,” Hooker said.

“Maybe they’ve announced it so it puts pressure on me and just makes me do it; maybe they think I’m going to look like a chicken if I come out and say I don’t want to fight five rounds, but that’s obviously not the case. You just haven’t sparked my interest.

“If you want to do that, let’s go old school. I’ll do a no-round, no-time limit fight for the same price. How about that? Now you have my attention. Now you have sparked my interest.

“I guarantee you Bobby Green is up for that. We’ll scrap the rounds altogether and just do a 25-minute fight, a half an hour fight – it can go half an hour because you don’t need to waste time drinking water in the corner – then it doesn’t impact their TV or whatever. Scrap the rounds and we’ll just have a fight. Now I’ll do it for the same price. There’s my counter-offer, UFC.”

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission