{"id":212715,"date":"2025-10-14T12:41:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T12:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/212715\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T12:41:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T12:41:06","slug":"hooker-dismisses-rich-kid-tsarukyan-money-cant-help-you-beat-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/212715\/","title":{"rendered":"Hooker dismisses \u2018rich kid\u2019 Tsarukyan: \u2018Money can\u2019t help you beat me\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dan Hooker always wants the toughest fight the UFC can make for him, and they\u2019ve certainly set him up this time as \u201cThe Hangman\u201d faces No. 1 ranked lightweight Arman Tsarukyan in the main event of UFC Qatar<\/a> on November 22nd.<\/p>\n

Hooker is currently on a three fight win streak and was set to face Justin Gaethje at UFC 313 back in March. Unfortunately, a hand injury took Hooker out.<\/a> But it may have been a blessing in disguise because Dan says this Arman match-up has given him way more energy than the Justin fight ever did.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the fight that I wanted before the Gaethje fight got matched,\u201d Hooker told CombatTV. \u201cThis is the fight that I wanted because I feel like it\u2019s a guy that everyone thinks is gonna beat me. That\u2019s what I want. That\u2019s what I want to fight. That\u2019s why I want to fight. Obviously, everyone wants the fun fights. To me, I want the toughest test.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsarukyan certainly provides that. Stylistically, it\u2019s not a great fight for a striker like Hooker. That just motivates him more to prove the doubters wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want the guy that everyone thinks I\u2019m gonna lose to,\u201d he said. \u201cI want the guy that the odds are stacked against. And I feel like this is one of those fights. Big underdog. Can\u2019t wait to see the betting on it. I love it when the boys make a bunch of money off me. I love coming into my fights as a heavy underdog. That\u2019s my favorite. That\u2019s where I thrive. That\u2019s where I do my best work. I\u2019m excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis fight gets me out of bed. Gaethje didn\u2019t even really get me out of bed. I didn\u2019t even get out of bed for that fight. That\u2019s why it\u2019s exciting to me, and that\u2019s hard for people to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s already been a fair amount of back-and-forth between Tsarukyan and Hooker, with threats of a brawl<\/a> should the two run into each other on fight week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s a prick,\u201d Hooker said of his opponent. \u201cHe\u2019s just been chiming at me since he first got in the UFC, and I\u2019m just not one. I\u2019ll chime back. He discredits me as a fighter. He says that I turned him down and am running away from him and stuff like this. So he\u2019s been carrying on for all these years and I\u2019ve obviously chimed back, and I\u2019m not one to to mince my words when I\u2019m talking back to someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201dI just kinda think he\u2019s a spoiled little rich kid<\/a> that\u2019s had everything handed to him,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd yeah, I think I\u2019m just the complete opposite of that. Like, I\u2019ve taken everything that I have. I\u2019ve worked hard. I come out of nothing. So I just love to rub it in his face, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMoney can\u2019t help you beat Dan Hooker.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dan Hooker always wants the toughest fight the UFC can make for him, and they\u2019ve certainly set him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85,1396],"class_list":{"0":"post-212715","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-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212715","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=212715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}