{"id":877804,"date":"2026-09-02T20:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T20:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/877804\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T20:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T20:08:11","slug":"dan-hooker-details-why-hes-fine-being-viewed-as-a-gatekeeper-going-into-ufc-paris-can-change-in-one-single-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/877804\/","title":{"rendered":"Dan Hooker details why he&#8217;s fine being viewed as a gatekeeper going into UFC Paris: &#8216;Can change in one single night&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Trending:<a class=\"exactmetrics-inline-popular-posts-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/islam-makhachev\/pros-react-after-islam-makhachev-defeats-ian-machado-garry-at-ufc-330\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pros react after Islam Makhachev defeats Ian Machado Garry at UFC 330<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Dan-Hooker-1024x576.jpg\" class=\"nlz w-full h-auto wp-post-image\" alt=\"Dan Hooker\" fetchpriority=\"high\"   data-eio=\"p\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Dan Hooker is fine being considered a gatekeeper heading into UFC Paris.<\/p>\n<p>Hooker is set to headline UFC Paris on Saturday against newcomer Salahdine Parnasse. Heading into the fight, Hooker <a href=\"http:\/\/sportsbook.fanduel.com\/mma\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">is a sizable +420 underdog while the Frenchman is a -650 favorite on<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fanduel.com\/research\/ufc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">FanDuel<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Although Hooker is a sizable underdog, he has plenty of confidence in himself that he can silence the Paris crowd and upset Parnasse. If he does upset Parnasse, Hooker knows he won\u2019t be considered a gatekeeper anymore and will be back to a true contender.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m more than happy to play the role that I\u2019m in right now and the role that I\u2019m in right now is gatekeeping the top 10 of the UFC\u2019s lightweight division,\u201d Hooker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-9l_fytMnkI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">said<\/a> at UFC Paris media day. \u201cAnd I\u2019m more than happy to play that role. Is that a position that defines my career? No, it\u2019s not. You get your hand raised, and then I\u2019ll be looking up at the rankings, and I\u2019ll be looking to get back in the mix and to get myself back to title contention.<\/p>\n<p>Dan Hooker eyes top-10 opponent after UFC Paris<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, you\u2019re playing the role of a gatekeeper right now, but that doesn\u2019t define your career, the future of your career. The beauty of the sport is it can change in one single night. You get your hand raised against Salahdine with an impressive fight, and showcase the skill and the level that I\u2019m prepared to showcase, that I anticipate of showcasing, we\u2019re back in the mix, we\u2019re not playing that role anymore, we\u2019re targeting someone in the top 10.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If Hooker does beat Parnasse at UFC Paris, he does want a top-10 opponent next. Even though Parnasse is a UFC newcomer, he does think highly of him and points to the fact that he\u2019s headlining a UFC card in his debut.<\/p>\n<p>Dan Hooker enters UFC Paris with a record of 24-14 and is coming off back-to-back stoppage losses. He suffered a TKO loss to Benoit Saint Denis at UFC 325 in February and suffered a submission loss to Arman Tsarukyan before that.<\/p>\n<p>Do you think Dan Hooker can pull off the upset at UFC Paris?<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-1 mt-0 os-source\">This article appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BJPENN.COM<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trending:Pros react after Islam Makhachev defeats Ian Machado Garry at UFC 330 Dan Hooker is fine being considered&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":877805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-877804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877804","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=877804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}