Dan Hooker Ponders Future Fight With Alexander Volkanovski: ‘That’s Not The Worst Situation’
UFC lightweight contender, Dan Hooker has suggested a potential future matchup against City Kickboxing teammate, reigning featherweight champion, Alexander Volkanovski would not be the worst situation to find himself in — with speculation brewing regarding a potential division return for the Auckland native.
Hooker, who has suffered three defeats in his last four lightweight outings, currently sits at #8 in the official lightweight pile — most recently suffering a one-sided, kimura submission loss to the #4 rated, Islam Makhachev at UFC 267 on short notice back in October on ‘Fight Island’.
Prior to that loss, Hooker briefly snapped a two-fight slide against both Dustin Poirier and Michael Chandler with an impressive unanimous decision success opposite Nasrat Haqparast in September at UFC 266.
In the time since his loss to American Kickboxing Academy standout, Makhachev, Hooker fueled speculation of a featherweight division return — hitting the 146lbs limit at featherweight during a test-cut with the help of a dietician from the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas.
The City Kickboxing mainstay then claimed that should he make a return to the featherweight limit, where he competed six times during his promotional stint, he would like to first match with the #4 ranked challenger, one-time title challenger, Chan Sung Jung first.
Dan Hooker suggests a future fight with teammate Alexander Volkanovski is not the “worst situation”
Speaking on It’s Time For Sports podcast recently, Hooker claimed that a potential future matchup with teammate, Volkanovski was not the worst situation to find themselves in — likening the potential pairing to another potential lightweight bout with training partner, Brad Riddell.
It’s the same as the position like Brad Riddell in my division at lightweight,” Dan Hooker said. “There is never a bad position to be in. It’s like your training partners or your group of friends are so good at fighting that you might potentially have to fight each other to be the best fighter in the world. That’s not the worst situation, but I want [Alexander] Volkanovski to win as well and I see him being super successful.“
Hooker also claimed that the landscape of the featherweight division may look considerably different in the not-too-distant future, hinting at a lightweight move for Volkanovski.
“Well, the landscape of something can change so quickly in this sport,” Dan Hooker explained. “Over the next year, you could see Volkanvoski doing some incredible things. You could see Volkanovski moving up to lightweight and being a double champ. You could see him fighting Conor McGregor and walking away with 20 million dollars or something incredible. That’s what I see for Volkanovski. I want Volkanovski to win and I want Brad [Riddell] to win as well. I want my teammates to be successful as well. It is not like I want to be successful at their expense. I want to be successful but I want to see them do some incredible things as well.” (Transcribed by Sportskeeda)
