Dan Hooker wants to shoot straight to the top of the rankings in his move back down to featherweight.
Hooker (21-11 MMA, 11-7 UFC), who started out his UFC career at 145 pounds, became a perennial contender when he moved up to lightweight. “The Hangman” scored notable wins over Gilbert Burns, Al Iaquinta and Paul Felder, but after losing three of his past four to former champion Dustin Poirier, former title challenger Michael Chandler, and rising contender Islam Makhachev, he decided to return to his original home.
Hooker went through a successful test cut last month. And after making 146 pounds on the scale, Hooker seems more confident in his decision to move back down. He initially asked for Chan Sung Jung, but when the “Korean Zombie” wasn’t available, Hooker turned his attention to Brian Ortega when he ran into UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby while cornering Kai Kara-France at UFC 269.
“After Kai’s win, (I bumped into) Sean Shelby on the way out, and that’s the first time I’ve heard from him since the featherweight thing,” Hooker said on The Mac Life’s “Pub Talk.” “He’s obviously seen it, and he was like, ‘Well, what are you going to do? 55, 45?’ I said yeah, 45. I can make 45 quite comfortably if I get something good. He goes, ‘Who do you want?’ I said ‘Korean Zombie,’ but he’s injured. What about Ortega? He goes, ‘Oh, I’ll have a look. I’ll send you a list.’ I was amped up.”
Ortega (15-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC) is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Hooker’s teammate, featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, at UFC 266. “T-City’s” only two losses have come in championship fights against Max Holloway and most recently Volkanovski.
Hooker had an inconsistent run at featherweight, splitting his six appearances in the UFC. He picked up finishes of Ian Entwistle, Hatsu Hioki and Mark Eddiva, with one of his losses coming to featherweight contender Yair Rodriguez at UFC 192 in 2015.
Dan Hooker says he asked UFC for Brian Ortega after hearing ‘Korean Zombie’ injured
