Dan Hooker On Move To Featherweight, Own Fighting Future

Dan Hooker was a guest on “Submission Radio” recently.

Hooker will drop down to featherweight to face Arnold Allen next month. The bout will be part of the UFC Fight Night event in London on March 19.

For Hooker, it marks a change as he previously competed at lightweight. Three losses in his last four bouts, though, prompted the decision to switch. 

“It was more like a change of weight class and a fresh start, and then I found some success and found my feet, which made me not really even think about it or really cross my mind,” he said. “But kind of as time went on and it just became very easy to make lightweight, almost too easy kind of thing. And then yeah, like, it was so easy that you could kind of cut corners and eat what you want during training camp, and just that level of focus that I had been accustomed to for the rest of my career wasn’t required.

“Like, it would be very difficult for another person to kind of do what I’d done. But I just became accustomed to it. I became accustomed to training camp being like a lot of suffering. And that is something that I handled quite well. Or like, maybe people call me a sucker for punishment, but I just like living that and I thrive in that, and it just adds like a level of focus that I don’t need to commit to at lightweight.

“So, I feel like it’s definitely the best move for my career, and I’m expecting a lot from this move.”

After winning three in a row from 2019-20, Hooker was topped by Dustin Poirier and Michael Chandler. He rebounded with a win in September, but was submitted by Islam Makhachev in October. 

Hooker owns wins over the likes of Paul Felder, Al Iaquinta, Gilbert Burns and Jim Miller, holding a career mark of 21-11.