Dan Hooker hopes matchup with Dustin Poirier gets rescheduled

It was a matchup for which fans of all-action fights had set up reminders in their Google calendars: Former UFC interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier vs. Dan Hooker, which was expected to headline UFC San Diego on May 16.

Then, as everyone who is currently spending their days isolated at home can tell you, the worldwide coronavirus pandemic hit. Any attempt at making the bout, which had been agreed upon but not yet formally signed, went by the wayside when the state of California extended its suspension of combat sports activity through the end of May, thus wiping out the UFC’s planned card.

Hooker, for his part, was understandably bummed out about the event falling out.

“This is just something I live for, man,” Hooker recently told MMA Junkie. “I live for getting in the cage, I live for putting on a show. Any shred of hope they were giving me, I was going all in on it. As far as I was concerned, the only message I was getting from the UFC was a green light. … So I was training my ass off, I was getting fit, I was prepared as I could be under the circumstances at the moment. So it took my a day, yesterday training was pretty unmotivated but I’m looking forward to getting back into some sessions today.”

It’s not too hard to understand why this fight is so meaningful for the New Zealander. Hooker’s recent split-decision victory over Paul Felder is an early candidate for Fight of the Year consideration, and his stock has never been higher. A win over a competitor as well-respected as Poirier could be just what it takes to break into the elite pack at 155 pounds.

In the meantime, Poirier began angling for a fight with Tony Ferguson after Khabib Nurmagomedov had to pull out of their ill-fated UFC 249 pairing. That didn’t pan out, but either way, Hooker isn’t mad at Poirier for the attempt.

“It’s a business,” Hooker said. “This whole game is risk/reward. Would I have entertained the idea of a lower-ranked fighter at this time under those circumstances? Definitely not. So, for Dustin to throw his name in the hat for a fight that would have potentially got him even more back on track than a fight against me, you know, I have no problem with that. If he turned down me to fight Gaethje or Ferguson or McGregor, I can’t get upset about that because I would do the exact same thing to him.”

All Hooker can do for now is get back to training and control the things he can, and hope that the Poirier fight comes to pass when all is said done.

“I like the matchup, two of the most skilled strikers in that top five, but his ranking, man, that’s really why, irrelevant of everyone else, he’s No. 2 in the world and he’s the last guy to fight for the title,” Hooker said. “If you want to put yourself in position for a title shot, beating the last guy to fight for the title in a main event is how you do that. Regardless of everything else, I feel like I match up well against anyone in the entire division. So that was genuinely, just for rankings, I’ll look, I get the No. 2, and then I’ll look at the actual styles and how we match up once I get the fight contract.”

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