Dan Hooker isn\u2019t in the business of turning down fights even if he\u2019s never heard of the opponent being offered to him.<\/p>\n
After informing the UFC that he was ready to get back in action as early as September, he got a call asking if he\u2019d like to welcome highly touted prospect Salahdine Parnasse to the octagon. Parnasse is a former two-division champion out of KSW and dazzled under his biggest spotlight to date when he knocked out Kenneth Cross on the main card for the Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano card back in May.<\/p>\n
But truth be told, when the UFC asked Hooker about fighting him, he had no problem saying yes while simultaneously admitting he had never heard of Parnasse before that moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never heard of him,\u201d Hooker told MMA Fighting. \u201cBut since that, you find out he\u2019s quite a big name on the European circuit. I\u2019m obviously aware of KSW, that\u2019s a huge show out there in Europe. They\u2019re selling out stadiums. I had no idea who he was.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy manager told me how much money they were offering me to fight him, and they must think this kid\u2019s pretty hot.\u201d<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take Hooker long to understand the narrative with this fight because Parnasse is a big free-agent signing for the UFC and his first fight is headlining the promotion\u2019s return to Paris where he\u2019s a massive local star.<\/p>\n
None of that offended the veteran lightweight because Hooker knows he\u2019s always game for a big fight, especially when the UFC is willing to pay him as much as he\u2019s about to earn on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re offered double what you would have got for Justin Gaethje \u2014 let\u2019s say I was going to fight Justin Gaethje for half this amount,\u201d Hooker revealed. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to pay to play. You want a superstar, I\u2019m the only one dumb enough to fight the kid.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one else plays the game like I play the game. I play on high volatility. I play it on high risk. At the end of the day, I\u2019m a prizefighter. I\u2019m here for the biggest prize and this is the biggest prize that is being offered in the world. I\u2019ll be there with bells on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hooker enters the fight off two straight losses to Arman Tsarukayn and Benoit Saint Denis, and while both of those opponents are ranked in the top 10, it doesn\u2019t make the sting of defeat any easier.<\/p>\n
Before he took any new fights, Hooker first had to concede what went wrong in both of those losses, and he had to rectify that problem before booking his return to action.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter a couple of tough losses, you have to be real honest with yourself about what has been going wrong and where you\u2019re mucking up,\u201d Hooker said. \u201cThose kinds of things were identified. When I didn\u2019t have a fight locked in, I wasn\u2019t putting the hours in the gym that I had throughout the past decade before that. So that\u2019s what we did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hooker started working with a new strength and conditioning coach, and he also had to be brutally honest with his other coaches when admitting that he was slacking off between fights.<\/p>\n
That was a hard pill to swallow, but Hooker knows now that he had to make those necessary changes if he wanted to get back in the win column again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been on an all new strength and conditioning program at City Kickboxing and just grinding out,\u201d Hooker said. \u201cWhen I took a fight, I believe in that amount of time I would have been offered something by the UFC, but you can\u2019t really sit down with your coaches and say I\u2019ve just been training in fight camps and when the lights and cameras haven\u2019t been on, I haven\u2019t been putting in the work and then just jump straight back into another camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo yeah, there have been no lights and cameras. I\u2019ve just been running hills and sprinting tracks and lifting weights so when I let the UFC know I was ready to go in September, I was fit and ready and a good physical place to take a matchup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hooker knows he\u2019s stepping into enemy territory for his fight against Parnasse on Saturday but he actually relishes the chance to play spoiler.<\/p>\n
After fighting close to home a number of times during his career, Hooker realized he much prefers being the away team in these situations. At UFC Paris, Hooker can\u2019t wait to hear the roar of the crowd when Parnasse walks out and then the subsequent silence from those in attendance after watching their hometown favorite get demolished in his debut.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s so much fun!\u201d Hooker said. \u201cThinking about that moment gives me a warm feeling in my heart. Everyone is spending their hard-earned money for a ticket, and I\u2019m just going to ruining it. I\u2019m going to spoil the party. This kid\u2019s out here to prove he belongs in the top 10, prove he\u2019s in title contention, and he\u2019s going to make a run for the belt and this will be the last time you ever heard of the kid.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, he doesn\u2019t get past me. This is going to be the first and last time this kid headlines a UFC event.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dan Hooker isn\u2019t in the business of turning down fights even if he\u2019s never heard of the opponent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-875110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875110","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=875110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}