{"id":29864,"date":"2025-07-28T17:20:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T17:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/29864\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T17:20:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T17:20:11","slug":"dan-hooker-rips-ufc-over-canceled-tickets-im-not-going-to-break-my-back-for-a-company-that-doesnt-respect-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/29864\/","title":{"rendered":"Dan Hooker rips UFC over canceled tickets: \u2018I\u2019m not going to break my back for a company that doesn\u2019t respect me\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dan Hooker<\/a> has always answered the call for the UFC, but right now he\u2019s keeping his best interests in mind.<\/p>\n

With the UFC heading back to Perth on Sept. 28, New Zealand\u2019s Hooker was ready to book a fight for that card even though he is still recovering from undergoing hand surgery this past March. He changed his mind the week of UFC 317<\/a> in June, when he was denied tickets to be in attendance at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas to watch friend and teammate Kai Kara-France<\/a> challenge flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The incident left a sour taste in Hooker\u2019s mouth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey tried to get me out of bed at 7:30 in the morning [eastern time]\u2014the UFC booked me for some shit\u2014which is three in the morning New Zealand time,\u201d Hooker said on Submission Radio<\/a>. \u201cI didn\u2019t even go out. I had an early night, but I\u2019m not getting out of bed at three in the morning to do just about anything. I slept in, and I didn\u2019t go to the UFC thing. They canceled my tickets to Kai\u2019s fight and then so it\u2019s like, I\u2019m going to rush back and fight injured for a company that\u2019s going to cancel my tickets to the event when I\u2019ve traveled all the way to Las Vegas. I would have fought injured, but then someone at a desk has crossed my name off a list.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou work in the office, brother, I work in the\u2014you think there would be a bit more respect there for guys who literally give their life. The amount of blood, sweat, and tears I\u2019ve poured into putting shows on for that company, I thought there would have been a bit more respect there. But there\u2019s not, which is cool, business is business. We can fight on my terms then. … I\u2019m not going to break my back for a company that doesn\u2019t respect me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hooker didn\u2019t clarify exactly why his tickets for UFC 317 were revoked, but he made it clear he would not be making a quick turnaround for the promotion despite wanting to fight closer to home on the Perth card. He now eyes a still-to-be-announced New York pay-per-view card, which the UFC typically hosts in November every year.<\/p>\n

For his next opponent, Hooker wants to take on top contender Arman Tsarukyan<\/a>, and though that matchup would likely determine the No. 1 contender at 155 pounds for champion Ilia Topuria<\/a>, \u201cThe Hangman\u201d isn\u2019t interested in championship rounds unless there\u2019s significant extra pay involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty grand for an extra ten minutes is the going rate,\u201d Hooker said. \u201cI\u2019m a logical thinker. In what world do I get a half a million dollars for 15 minutes and then I get half a million dollars and 20 grand for half an hour?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I used to work at the bloody kitchen factory, do you think I did an eight-hour day and got paid a couple of hundred bucks and then I\u2019m going to do twice as much work and get a fraction more money. It just doesn\u2019t make sense to me. \u2018Oh, but, you know, for the experience.\u2019 Shove it up your f*cking ass, bro, I\u2019m not going to work. I\u2019m not going to work for twice as long. If you want me to go to work for twice as long, pay me twice as much, that\u2019s how that works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as Hooker aired his grievances with the promotion he\u2019s called home since 2014, he also praised the UFC for its business acumen. Right now, it has a popular champion at the top lightweight division in Topuria, and a number of potential challengers lining up for his first defense of that title.<\/p>\n

Hooker explained how this scenario is by design.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UFC is smart as f*ck,\u201d Hooker said. \u201cThey never paint themselves into a situation where there\u2019s a clear No. 1 contender that has to fight for the belt next, because if they\u2019re ever in that situation, then negotiations obviously become very difficult for them. If the fans are 100 percent locked and expecting there\u2019s only one guy that makes sense for the title, you think when they sit down and negotiate, the UFC\u2019s in a strong position?<\/p>\n

\u201cNow they\u2019ve got [Justin] Gaethje that they can have, they\u2019ve got Arman that still they\u2019ve said doesn\u2019t but he does still make sense for the title. Paddy Pimblett<\/a> could step up because he\u2019s got f*cking beef coming out of his ears. So they always have in a title fight situation three guys that could justify title shots because then if they have one guy, they go to the first guy, he starts playing hard ball, then they can go to the second guy, they can go to the third guy, then they can go back to the first guy. At the end of the day it\u2019s business and the fight that makes the most dollars makes the most sense for the UFC.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dan Hooker has always answered the call for the UFC, but right now he\u2019s keeping his best interests…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[4443,5512,23416,49,48,23415,2539,23412,2198,641,693,700,20066,23413,2833,701,17445,15643,638,23417,5348,23414,23418,15818,82,2199,14055,19505,696,640,702],"class_list":["post-29864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-a","tag-back","tag-break","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canceled","tag-company","tag-dan","tag-doesn","tag-fighting","tag-for","tag-front-page","tag-going","tag-hooker","tag-i","tag-latest-news","tag-m","tag-me","tag-mma","tag-my","tag-not","tag-over","tag-respect","tag-rips","tag-sports","tag-t","tag-that","tag-tickets","tag-to","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}