{"id":299834,"date":"2025-11-22T15:06:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T15:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/299834\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T15:06:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T15:06:07","slug":"i-hate-everyone-ranked-in-front-of-me-dan-hooker-mixes-it-up-with-paddy-pimblett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/299834\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I hate everyone ranked in front of me\u2019 \u2014 Dan Hooker mixes it up with Paddy Pimblett"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">This weekend will be a big one for Hooker as the No. 6-ranked lightweight takes a big step up in competition and meets No. 1-ranked contender Arman Tsarukyan atop UFC Qatar\u2019s ESPN+ main card. Hooker hasn\u2019t fought since an upset win over Mateusz Gamrot back in Aug. 2024, which is the longest layoff of his UFC career. That puts a lot of pressure on \u201cHangman\u201d as he looks to overthrow one of the toughest outs in the division.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Ahead of Hooker\u2019s UFC Qatar main event fight, the lightweight veteran ended up meeting Pimblett \u2014 who is currently ranked one spot above him at N0. 5 \u2014 during Friday\u2019s ceremonial weigh ins. Pimblett is in Qatar to help corner his friend, Shem Rock, who is making his Octagon debut on the undercard. The two lightweight contenders were very cordial and had a few laughs, but Hooker basically told Pimblett to his face that he hates him because he\u2019s ranked higher.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cI hate everyone ranked in front of me. If you\u2019re behind me, great bloke,\u201d explained Hooker.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cI like the style,\u201d responded Pimblett with a laugh.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">We\u2019ll see later today if Hooker is able to pull off one of the biggest upsets of the year and hand Tsarukyan just his third loss as a member of the UFC roster. If that happens, there\u2019s a chance \u201cHangman\u201d and \u201cBaddy\u201d could cross paths once again in 2026, but this time inside of the cage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">For more UFC Qatar: \u201cTsarukyan vs. Hooker\u201d news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-espn-plus-fight-pass-events-schedule-mma\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This weekend will be a big one for Hooker as the No. 6-ranked lightweight takes a big step&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,82,37644,702],"class_list":["post-299834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-on-espn-fight-night","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299834","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=299834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}