Dan Hooker: Islam Makhachev Fight Can Be Five Rounds

Dan Hooker has no problems facing Islam Makhachev. 

And he has no problems facing him in a scheduled five round affair.

Hooker was a guest on Submission Radio recently to discuss the fight, which takes place at UFC 267.

The event takes place this Saturday and already features two five round title fights. Jan Blachowicz defends his light heavyweight belt vs. Glover Teixeira.

Petr Yan and Cory Sandhagen meet for the interim bantamweight title in the co-main event.

Hooker remained in the U.S. after besting Nasrat Haqparast. He had trouble getting here, but stayed to remain active. 

“Let’s do it. I just feel good, man, I just feel good,” he said. “I just feel like there was a couple of really hard weeks getting back into the swing of things. And by that I mean getting the rounds in, with the bodies, getting the sparring in, getting the wrestling in.

“Wrestling every day, conditioning every second day. And it was a real grind there for a couple of weeks. And then that last week, it just came on, man, just felt good. Just felt my fitness was there, wrestling for 45 minutes straight and feeling good, feeling sharp, feeling fresh.

“Like, feeling like everything was technically there. I feel like a five-rounder. I just finished one of the last hard sessions of my camp and I’m feeling like a five-rounder. If we can make that happen, then I’m 100 percent in.

“Let’s make it five. I feel like people are as intrigued by this match-up as the co-main and main, so let’s do it justice.”

The win for Hooker came on the heels of back-to-back losses to Michael Chandler and Dustin Poirier. He had won three in a row and seven of eight prior to that.

Makhachev is on an eight-fight win streak and is 9-1 with the UFC and 20-1 overall. He has claimed two submission wins in 2021 already.