The entire lightweight division is in flux right now as Charles Oliveira awaits a new opponent for his UFC Rio main event, but one fighter that isn’t bothered by all the drama is Dan Hooker.
Hooker is ranked No. 6 at 155 and would be an amazing replacement for Rafael Fiziev, who withdrew from the Oliveira fight with an undisclosed injury. But as “The Hangman” said the first time the fight was offered to him, he’s still recovering from a badly broken hand that required multiple surgeries and won’t be ready to compete until November.
Rather than try to build clout off a matchup he can’t accept, Dan spent the weekend holding another sequel to the infamous 1-Minute Scraps event he held in his back yard in May. This time the event was held in a gym and featured 32 super heavyweights competing for a $50,000 prize. The full video from the event has already been posted up on YouTube by The Mac Life.
The police in New Zealand aren’t a huge fan of Hooker’s 1-Minute Scraps series. Following the previous edition in his backyard, sensationalist news articles appeared claiming Hooker had gathered criminal elements from nine different gangs for an illegal human cockfight. Possibly as a mocking play on those articles, Hooker declared that this edition of 1-Minute Scraps was ‘convicts only.’
Hooker has insisted the events are legal — if only because the country lacks laws on amateur MMA. These rules weren’t exactly MMA either: closed fist strikes only, no elbows, no kicks, and an immediate stoppage once an opponent hits the ground.
“No grabbing, no mucking around,” Hooker declared before the fights started. “We’re all here for the same reason: we like to fight and we like to throw punches. All that other s—‘s out the window.”
At least “The Hangman” is keeping himself busy!