{"id":109374,"date":"2025-08-31T21:00:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T21:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/109374\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T21:00:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T21:00:07","slug":"noche-ufcs-claudio-puelles-admits-it-took-me-a-while-to-get-over-dan-hooker-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/109374\/","title":{"rendered":"Noche UFC&#8217;s Claudio Puelles admits &#8216;it took me a while to get over&#8217; Dan Hooker loss"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Claudio Puelles has taken advantage of the extensive layoffs he&#8217;s had since losing the biggest fight of his career against Dan Hooker at UFC 281 in November 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Puelles (12-4 MMA, 5-3 UFC) suffered <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/ufc\/2022\/11\/12\/results-dan-hooker-avoids-claudio-puelles-awkward-ground-attacks-scores-stiff-body-kick-tko-finish\/81068699007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:a second-round TKO defeat;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">a second-round TKO defeat<\/a> to Hooker nearly three years ago and has only fought once since, dropping a spit decision to Fares Ziam at UFC Fight Night 237 in February 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Recovery from a broken hand sustained against Ziam has kept Puelles on the sidelines, but he said it hasn&#8217;t been a sunken cost. He has worked diligently on his physical and mental game, the latter of which he admits had a setback due to the result against Hooker.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In my mind it took me a while to get over that, honestly,&#8221; Puelles told MMA Junkie Radio. &#8220;I only got over that after the next fight I had. After I finished the next fight I was like, &#8216;Wow, I&#8217;ve still got it.&#8217; Even though I lost a split decision I was like, &#8216;I just fought three hard rounds with a very tough prospect and a guy that has been finishing everybody.&#8217; It took a while because I didn&#8217;t get to do anything for a while and hear all the critiques and that sh*t. It was tough for a while but after that fight it all went away.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Puelles, still just 29, returns to action at <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/events\/noche-ufc-san-antonio\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:UFC Fight Night 259;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">UFC Fight Night 259<\/a> (Noche UFC) on Sept. 13 when he takes on Joaquim Silva (13-5 MMA, 6-5 UFC) in a lightweight bout at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas.<\/p>\n<p>The Peruvian is confident all the building blocks are in place to snap his two-fight losing skid and taste victory for the first time since he submitted Clay Guida in April 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I wish I hadn&#8217;t broken my hand in the last fight because I was riding very good momentum in my head, wanting to fight in three months,&#8221; Puelles said. &#8220;But then I found out I broke my hand and had to wait for a while. It&#8217;s all been carried over into this next camp. Great head space, my best shape ever probably, so far.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/ufc\/2025\/08\/31\/noche-ufc-claudio-puelles-took-a-while-to-get-over-dan-hooker-loss\/85907574007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Noche UFC&#039;s Claudio Puelles took &#039;a while to get over&#039; Dan Hooker loss;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Noche UFC&#8217;s Claudio Puelles took &#8216;a while to get over&#8217; Dan Hooker loss<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Claudio Puelles has taken advantage of the extensive layoffs he&#8217;s had since losing the biggest fight of his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,78258,49675,78259,786,785,78260,85,787],"class_list":{"0":"post-109374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-claudio-puelles","11":"tag-dan-hooker","12":"tag-fares-ziam","13":"tag-fighting","14":"tag-mma","15":"tag-puelles","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-ufc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}