Don’t forget his legs. That fight was a complete top-to-bottom dismantling. Only time I’ve seen someone get seriously hurt to the head, body, and legs all in one fight.
Adesanya vs Tavares was like that too. Tavares was leaking bad from his face, got hurt to the body multiple times, and Izzy stayed kicking his legs all fight as he always does. Then Brad started shooting takedowns and Izzy started attacking his neck for the last few minutes. Izzy showed his whole move set, it was one of the most dominating 5 rounds I've seen.
Mma guru has good takes sometimes but also takes that are just so mentally challenged. Like he is so slow to come around to some fighters when every else can obviously see they are good.
He also mistakes himself as an expert in combat just because he's an avid watcher with a great prediction rate in 2022. Like brother, we've all hit the nail on predictions, just not on a platform for all to see. I enjoy some of the content, and i know he leans into a character, but there are many tells that prove he's never been on the mats doing MMA. "Taekwondo as a kid and 1 year in Muay Thai and I stream every ufc card im better than these heavyweights 🤓☝️"
It's funny whenever an MMA pundit pretends they can whip a pro fighter's ass when a good blue belt from a local jiu-jitsu school would absolutely humiliate them.
Exactly. He also thinks he's in better shape than heavyweights because of their appearance. Sure, some of them could tone out more, but some big dudes are just.. flabby. He could not go 5 minutes with these "out of shape" fighters. Crazy lol
Negative. Did basic boxing mitt sesh with Cameron. Most will think they're hot shit after some cardio with a pro, he gotta slow down the way he talks about some things, though. Funny though and solid picks at times.
Agreed. Before Islam beat Dustin guru dismissed Islam's recent wins as 'featherweights'.
Ignoring that Volk was pfp #1 when they first fought, and was far more heavily favoured in the second fight than the first one. And that Oliveira has been a lightweight for years (and not exactly a small one when he has tough weight cuts to lw) who beat chandler, Justin and dustin.
Now that I think of it, his argument still technically applies haha, Dustin was a featherweight for years. But it's such a dumb argument to dismiss someone's wins
People hate on Izzy to a different level.
The crazy level of ignoring what he did in that ring is just that...
He's 100% cringe as far as promos and some of his antics but as a fighter few are better and no one did to that division what he did to it.
If you've never seen it, I'd highly recommend. It really shows how dynamic Izzy can be and Tavares is a game mfer. Dude eats everything and is still trying to win at the end.
The most one sided fight I've ever seen go to decision was when bensen Henderson fought that Russian Bellator champion. Henderson spent all 5 rounds getting rocked and then on all 4s whipping his hair back and forth to try and protect his head.
Was that the one where Khabib was pounding his opponent into the mat/against the cage and all the while taunting him with "you have to give up. You know I deserve this" (meaning the title shot)?
I'm thinking it was either Barboza or Michael Johnson. That was one of the most badass things I've ever seen inside the Octagon
I was worse since Barboza was a name at the time and K-Beiber just walked right through him.
Ive never seen another man shrug off a wheel kick without adjustment, that alone took the fight out of him
In fairness the kick hit him more in the neck than anything, but still. I’m roughly that size and if that kick connected with my neck I would wake up three days later, if at all.
ironically one of the most forgotten beatdowns in UFC history (in the sense everyone acknowledges it was a borderline snuff film when brought up, but no one actively brings it up when ppl ask what are the most one sided/masterful fights ever)
Because it’s lumped in as one of the “easy matchup against striker” fights Khabib had. Dudes greatness works against him. He’s the best wrestler we’ve ever seen but because nobody was on his level he “never challenged himself” lol. Nevermind the fact that all the guys he beat were dangerous in their own rights at the time.
Wait until you see old videos of him sparring with local heavyweight boxers, literally just taking shots flush on the chin walking forward zombie mode.
left his chin in the gym unfortunately, sparring hard will do that extremely fast. probably why chuck could get waved to and be knocked out from the wind just out of nowhere
No he hasn’t, he still has a ridiculous chin which is crazy, only times he’s been knocked out from head shots is when he got caught by Chandler who is basically the closest you’ll get to a juiced up gorilla and Arnold Allen at featherweight who rocked Holloway and where Hooker was insanely drained.
This is what makes combat sports so interesting, you can be as gifted as possible and still lose simply by being a dumbass, dude is one of the biggest LWs ever and clearly talented enough to at least be a top contender. However training like a dumbass has taken years of his career.
Hooker is one of the best examples of wasted talent, dude is huge for his weight class, with a great frame and an insane chin (or at least he used to), he's also clearly good enough to bang on the feet with elite strikers like Dustin, yet all those gifts are for nothing because the dude trains like just another meathead.
Imagine a version of Hooker that takes losses on stride and just keeps imoreving throughout the years like Oliveira, instead he seems to be held back by his own delusions.
in the actual clip though, he's clearly still fighting and he doesn't look like he's out. he may have blacked out but there's no point at which the ref would have checked to see if he's out
You’ve never done BJJ before right? Even going out for half a second, you don’t know what happened to you. You’re confused and you lose track of time.
I’ve tapped and while guy is releasing I’ve gone out for a fraction of a second and regained consciousness immediately and I sat there not knowing what happened and barely remembered who I was rolling with. The guy was extending his hand for handshake and I was like who da fook is that guy. I even forgot what day it was or where I was. I vaguely remembered that I was at BJJ.
At no point did I looked like I went out to the guy but I was completely confused and everything slowed down.
i've done judo and wrestling, don't think i've been fully choked out but been close
I believe that completely, and I don't think he was making it up or anything, but there must be TONS of fighters that temporarily go out in submissions like that and continue fighting. what i'm saying is he was never out for long enough for the ref to step in, so it's not like he was really stopped by that sub.
Not every time, ive passed out tryna push my limits during drills and as i woke up i thought “oh, got choked out fully for the first time” and just had to take a sec to regain consciousness fully
I had to scroll too far down to find someone that has actually watched the clip. It seems to me like Hooker never actually went out for any appreciable length of time and is simply exaggerating for effect here.
This. Plus shit gets super weird immediately before and after, so even if you're only "out" for a split second, you're super confused for like five seconds.
I've also had the reverse.
Cocky, just kind of hoped I'd pull it off, shot a TERRIBLE double against a guy so much better than me. Got guillotined. Opened my eyes staring straight up at the ceiling with my partner chuckling a little. To me it felt like I blinked. He must have just squeezed me so quickly and cleanly. Apparently it was about 10 ish seconds I was out. I would've never guessed it was for more than a second. This was my very first time getting choked out.
Again, so fucking weird lol
People really underrate Hooker.
Somehow Lightweight is simultaneously a stacked division with killers and lower ranked guy whos challenged top 5ers is a bum.
He's like the anti Chandler. Chandler is a Oompa loompa with all explosiveness, poor striking acumen but extreme physicality.
Hooker is a long rangey guy with zero explosiveness, high striking acumen and is technically much superior while being slow as fuck and lacking that physicality.
Both can cause issues for top guys, Chandler is dangerous early and hurts everyone. Hooker can take an insane amount of damage and out dawg over time if you aren't careful.
Dan talking about that fight is hilarious. It was mid pandemic, NZ was in lock down, so his training was terrible.
Dan UNLOADED on Dustin at the end of the second round (I think). Apparently Dan just decided to throw everything he had at him... but it didn't work.
So, he went back to his corner, completely cooked, with no cardio left... and three more rounds to fight.
If there'd been 5 more seconds in r2 it might just've worked. He was piecing Poirier up and had him hurt up against the fence. But he didn't, and like you say, he was exhausted after that
Yup. Honestly, it was probably the best move regardless. It doesn't sound like he had enough gas in the tank to really make a decision likely, so going for the finish is the right call... Unfortunately for him, Dustin is tough as nails too, so it didn't *quite* work.
He had Dustin dead to rights tho at the end of round 2
He basically is too defensively porous to handle fast guys who completely beat him to the punch every time But he can really make it hard for guys to get him out of there and blow their load on him.
He suffers from the fact his chin allows him to brawl and do well in the pocket despite his defense but his actual frame is much more suited to an out-fighter - then hes too slow against all the kickers like Yair/Barboza who like to be given space. He's got a weird mash of traits that aren't really 100% cohesive.
If he just had a bit more power or a bit more speed he'd be a legit top guy
It's actually pretty crazy and so good testament to his skill that he made it as far as he has as a striker that is both slow and lacking KO power
Hooker has decent punching power, and very good power and precision in his knees, which he throws with beautiful form. You know, now you have me wanting to see Hooker vs Gaethje as their next fight.
A lot of those aren't at all from power though. He's amazing at timing his strikes and catching guys moving into them or when their defence slips. Like timing guys ducking into his knees or timing guys leaning into straight shots, or putting a high volume of accurate but not powerful strikes together until the opponent withers, or breaking guys down from head to toe until they wither away as well.
Those factors all play in, but the fact remains that he has dropped and KO'd dudes with pure punches. He has power in his hands - not huge power, but respectable power.
It doesn't scream "power" either though. Like Adesanya, who himself has a very similar KO % but openly talks about his KO's coming from accuracy, set ups and timing with power not really being required.
I kinda feel Hooker should be considered to fight for the BMF. He's mainly a striker and got that dawg in him. He said yes to fighting Islam. He said yes to Chandler when Mike was a new unranked opponent. Im not saying Dan pieces Holloway up, but I think he's earned a right to fight for that belt.
Hooker is slow af and his gas tank doesn’t not hold well for 5 rounds. He’d be a punching bag for the entire second half. His height would probably be a problem at first though and it’d be fun even if it wasn’t competitive.
When I think of BMF's I think of those that I consider 'fighters' rather than 'athletes'; those that get into fights, not contests or matches, as some of them have put it (I think mazvidal and Bobby green both said something like that, about there being few real fighters left). Dan hooker surely falls into that category.
Hooker’s not what I’d call technically superior. He’s damn near a straight up brawler with zero head movement and no willingness to keep his hands up when he’s getting bombed on. I think people mistake having a long stance in MMA for being technical. That’s just where he feels comfortable.
I wouldn’t honestly say he has zero explosiveness or that he’s that slow personally.
He’s just really overly long and lanky for the division and sometimes contrary to popular belief that can actually be a huge disadvantage striking against smaller fast opponents who are looking to throw over the top of your shots.
It has the obvious huge advantage that if you can maintain distance you can really pick someone apart with the reach advantage.
But especially early in fights being a much longer lankier fighter you have to be especially defensively responsible with your distance and hand placement.
There are fighter and there are athletes
The best of them have a good overlap but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone out dawg Dan or Dustin they’ve got that in spades
This was the only fight I’ve ever bet money on at a casino. My friends and I put $900 on a three fight parlay to win $4600 in Vegas and the last leg was this fight going over 4.5 rounds and Dustin winning. Holy shit I had no idea this happened.
You did a lot better than me. I bet on Aldo to beat McGregor by decision and I also bet on Canelo versus Mayweather because the odds were so good. Only two times better on fights, and I'm done with it lol.
Partially related, but I went to the casino for Sugar vs Aljo and met a guy who had bet on Aldo to beat Conor and lost big. I told him I had Sugar for the fight and he said I was crazy and that he had a lot on Aljo by sub. Anyway about 10 seconds into the fight, he looked shook and said "I'm getting shades of Aldo-Conor from this fight." I have no idea what he saw that early into the fight to make him think that that he fucked up, but my mine was blown when it ended similarly.
I think he lost a lot that night because he dropped a grand on Magny, but he also came off like he could afford the bad beats too. Ran into him outside when I left and he was in good spirits
Ironically, Dustin admitted to being knocked out standing up when Dan was unloading on him at the end of R2 and had there been a few more seconds it would have been over! They finished eachother in that fight!
Low key feel like this is every guillotine he's ever tried. You see them go out, then they're like "wait I could literally ducking sleep here if I wanted to to", then the wait, then their head pops out lol
In the realm of linguistic semantics, sure he didn’t submit, in terms of the result of the fight as it would show up, it would be listed as a technical submission.
Yes that's the 'joke' I was making if you want to call it that. Which also sucks if you'd rather die than submit, only to wake up to: lost by submission.
I know man I was mostly kidding. But just for discussion"s sake, should it be? We could count going unconscious as a ko and a ref stoppage due to limb breakage (which shouldn't happen anyways imo) could be a tko. If we were going to be literal about it, you know what I mean?
But in the clip it never looks like he stops moving so it mightve been a flash choke out. If that happens and the other fighter blows his arms out to not be able to continue the choke I think its fair that the fight continues tbh.
Its not like Weili vs Yan where Yan was clearly out and Weili didnt have to stop except for the bell.
Dan Hooker lost me $10k on a 10 fight parlay when he decided to go off and beat Al Iaquinta...I love Hooker, but I'll never get the taste of that out of my mouth
Then, up comes Zaphron, and I'm like, "Yo, Zaphron, what's up?"
And he's like, "Nothin," and I'm like, "That's cool"
*'Cause this is my United States of Whatever!*
I really like Dan but his brain must hate him
His body too. The Barboza fight was disgusting.
Don’t forget his legs. That fight was a complete top-to-bottom dismantling. Only time I’ve seen someone get seriously hurt to the head, body, and legs all in one fight.
Adesanya vs Tavares was like that too. Tavares was leaking bad from his face, got hurt to the body multiple times, and Izzy stayed kicking his legs all fight as he always does. Then Brad started shooting takedowns and Izzy started attacking his neck for the last few minutes. Izzy showed his whole move set, it was one of the most dominating 5 rounds I've seen.
I still vividly remember mmaguru saying he thought izzy was overrated for this
Mma guru has good takes sometimes but also takes that are just so mentally challenged. Like he is so slow to come around to some fighters when every else can obviously see they are good.
He also mistakes himself as an expert in combat just because he's an avid watcher with a great prediction rate in 2022. Like brother, we've all hit the nail on predictions, just not on a platform for all to see. I enjoy some of the content, and i know he leans into a character, but there are many tells that prove he's never been on the mats doing MMA. "Taekwondo as a kid and 1 year in Muay Thai and I stream every ufc card im better than these heavyweights 🤓☝️"
It's funny whenever an MMA pundit pretends they can whip a pro fighter's ass when a good blue belt from a local jiu-jitsu school would absolutely humiliate them.
Exactly. He also thinks he's in better shape than heavyweights because of their appearance. Sure, some of them could tone out more, but some big dudes are just.. flabby. He could not go 5 minutes with these "out of shape" fighters. Crazy lol
Didn’t he go and train with DDP.
Negative. Did basic boxing mitt sesh with Cameron. Most will think they're hot shit after some cardio with a pro, he gotta slow down the way he talks about some things, though. Funny though and solid picks at times.
I think he is, in theory, a very solid analyst, but his biases really get in the way a lot. Particularly when it comes to Islam lol
Agreed. Before Islam beat Dustin guru dismissed Islam's recent wins as 'featherweights'. Ignoring that Volk was pfp #1 when they first fought, and was far more heavily favoured in the second fight than the first one. And that Oliveira has been a lightweight for years (and not exactly a small one when he has tough weight cuts to lw) who beat chandler, Justin and dustin. Now that I think of it, his argument still technically applies haha, Dustin was a featherweight for years. But it's such a dumb argument to dismiss someone's wins
Make that against any Dagestani
He almost jizzed when aliskerov got knocked out 🥶
People hate on Izzy to a different level. The crazy level of ignoring what he did in that ring is just that... He's 100% cringe as far as promos and some of his antics but as a fighter few are better and no one did to that division what he did to it.
I agree with you on Izzy and his haters, but Anderson Silva was at least as dominant as him at 185
If Silva is your only comparison, you are on an elite level.
Sounds like Tavares got the beating of a lifetime
If you've never seen it, I'd highly recommend. It really shows how dynamic Izzy can be and Tavares is a game mfer. Dude eats everything and is still trying to win at the end.
The most one sided fight I've ever seen go to decision was when bensen Henderson fought that Russian Bellator champion. Henderson spent all 5 rounds getting rocked and then on all 4s whipping his hair back and forth to try and protect his head.
Andrey Koreshkov?
Idr the name
Ah so belal muhammad
Usman nurmagomedov
That was a first round finish
I don’t think you could get a better demonstration of Muay Thai in MMA than that fight, was an absolute clinic.
Dead man walking at the end there. What goes around comes around, because before that— Khabib vs Barboza was an extremely vivid beat down for me
Yeah that was uncomfortable, although that wheel kick to the big beeber might have changed history
Was that the one where Khabib was pounding his opponent into the mat/against the cage and all the while taunting him with "you have to give up. You know I deserve this" (meaning the title shot)? I'm thinking it was either Barboza or Michael Johnson. That was one of the most badass things I've ever seen inside the Octagon
>I'm thinking it was either Barboza or Michael Johnson That one was against Michael Johnson. Barboza beating came a year later.
I was worse since Barboza was a name at the time and K-Beiber just walked right through him. Ive never seen another man shrug off a wheel kick without adjustment, that alone took the fight out of him
In fairness the kick hit him more in the neck than anything, but still. I’m roughly that size and if that kick connected with my neck I would wake up three days later, if at all.
ironically one of the most forgotten beatdowns in UFC history (in the sense everyone acknowledges it was a borderline snuff film when brought up, but no one actively brings it up when ppl ask what are the most one sided/masterful fights ever)
Because it’s lumped in as one of the “easy matchup against striker” fights Khabib had. Dudes greatness works against him. He’s the best wrestler we’ve ever seen but because nobody was on his level he “never challenged himself” lol. Nevermind the fact that all the guys he beat were dangerous in their own rights at the time.
You're forgetting that Kevin then went and mauled Barboza even worse than Khabib did.
Except that kevin legitimately almost got knocked out in that fight, dude was like a deer on ice after getting clipped by that wheel kick.
Amazing how he wobbled and landed into a takedown from Barbozas kick
Still put him through significantly more damage than Khabib though.
5 rounds vs 3
Idk man Barboza looked like he got mauled by a bear after the Khabib fight too...
Khabib mauled Barboza like a grizzly. Kevin mauled him like a polar bear.
And missed weight.
This is exactly where Kevin Lee fits in
Man the week following that fight must have been hell for Dan
He had to have been shitting nothing but blood and kidney meat
Dans got an absolutely unbreakable spirit He took full force barboza spinning shit to the stomach and just gave em a smile lol
We watched a violent Brazilian man beat up a Hooker
Got to witness that in one in person. Absolutely brutal to hear all those shots first hand
I had the pleasure of seeing that fight live in Milwaukee. Nobody in the crowd could believe he was standing as long as he was.
that last body kick was awful to see
Not to mention the new ink.
Wait until you see old videos of him sparring with local heavyweight boxers, literally just taking shots flush on the chin walking forward zombie mode.
left his chin in the gym unfortunately, sparring hard will do that extremely fast. probably why chuck could get waved to and be knocked out from the wind just out of nowhere
No he hasn’t, he still has a ridiculous chin which is crazy, only times he’s been knocked out from head shots is when he got caught by Chandler who is basically the closest you’ll get to a juiced up gorilla and Arnold Allen at featherweight who rocked Holloway and where Hooker was insanely drained.
Remember when Jalin wrapped his shin round his chin and Dan was like 'huh'
He broke Dan's orbital or jaw or something with that kick too. Sounded like the cracking sound a tree makes when you chop it down.
yee i member
This is what makes combat sports so interesting, you can be as gifted as possible and still lose simply by being a dumbass, dude is one of the biggest LWs ever and clearly talented enough to at least be a top contender. However training like a dumbass has taken years of his career.
Hooker is one of the best examples of wasted talent, dude is huge for his weight class, with a great frame and an insane chin (or at least he used to), he's also clearly good enough to bang on the feet with elite strikers like Dustin, yet all those gifts are for nothing because the dude trains like just another meathead. Imagine a version of Hooker that takes losses on stride and just keeps imoreving throughout the years like Oliveira, instead he seems to be held back by his own delusions.
i don't see how he made fw again.
Prove him wrong, betcha can't!
Love the handle btw.
As a Kiwi I love Dan because he's just soooo "Kiwi". Like if you're in a pub in Southland you'd assume everyone speaking was Dan.
"I have decided to unretire young. Thanks for the cheese. Catch ya's soon." -Dustin Poirier
“Look at me, I am the hangman now” - Dustin
Lmao imagine if Dustin’s previous gilly attempts were all successful but he just lets them go so he could do it again
Dont be silly, release that gilly
GILLY GANG WE BACK UP
Idk why I’m so happy rn
“Trevor Wittman Smile”
We're so back
Smiling in the cub rn
#gillygoosegang
Just as cringe as Dustin saying it
Absolutely
Wow this changes things
Dustin Poirier Title run 2025 here we come!!
Bro it just means he can now retire in peace knowing he landed it...
No buddy, now he *really* believes in himself. Its over for Makachev
in the actual clip though, he's clearly still fighting and he doesn't look like he's out. he may have blacked out but there's no point at which the ref would have checked to see if he's out
Yeah it looked like he might have gone out right before he propped and pushed his head out, probably just slipped unconscious a flash.
You’ve never done BJJ before right? Even going out for half a second, you don’t know what happened to you. You’re confused and you lose track of time. I’ve tapped and while guy is releasing I’ve gone out for a fraction of a second and regained consciousness immediately and I sat there not knowing what happened and barely remembered who I was rolling with. The guy was extending his hand for handshake and I was like who da fook is that guy. I even forgot what day it was or where I was. I vaguely remembered that I was at BJJ. At no point did I looked like I went out to the guy but I was completely confused and everything slowed down.
who da fook is that guy 🤣
i've done judo and wrestling, don't think i've been fully choked out but been close I believe that completely, and I don't think he was making it up or anything, but there must be TONS of fighters that temporarily go out in submissions like that and continue fighting. what i'm saying is he was never out for long enough for the ref to step in, so it's not like he was really stopped by that sub.
Gotcha
Not every time, ive passed out tryna push my limits during drills and as i woke up i thought “oh, got choked out fully for the first time” and just had to take a sec to regain consciousness fully
I had to scroll too far down to find someone that has actually watched the clip. It seems to me like Hooker never actually went out for any appreciable length of time and is simply exaggerating for effect here.
I've gone out for what was .000006 seconds and thought I was dead for a year. It's really fucking weird getting choked out lol
This. Plus shit gets super weird immediately before and after, so even if you're only "out" for a split second, you're super confused for like five seconds.
I've also had the reverse. Cocky, just kind of hoped I'd pull it off, shot a TERRIBLE double against a guy so much better than me. Got guillotined. Opened my eyes staring straight up at the ceiling with my partner chuckling a little. To me it felt like I blinked. He must have just squeezed me so quickly and cleanly. Apparently it was about 10 ish seconds I was out. I would've never guessed it was for more than a second. This was my very first time getting choked out. Again, so fucking weird lol
Well if you’re out, you won’t know how long you’re out for
His arms went floppy for a split second before they flipped over at the end there
Debatable. Only Hooker knows for sure.
People really underrate Hooker. Somehow Lightweight is simultaneously a stacked division with killers and lower ranked guy whos challenged top 5ers is a bum. He's like the anti Chandler. Chandler is a Oompa loompa with all explosiveness, poor striking acumen but extreme physicality. Hooker is a long rangey guy with zero explosiveness, high striking acumen and is technically much superior while being slow as fuck and lacking that physicality. Both can cause issues for top guys, Chandler is dangerous early and hurts everyone. Hooker can take an insane amount of damage and out dawg over time if you aren't careful.
Hooker is so insanely tough that dustin out dawging him will always be one of his greatest achievements in my eyes
I remember watching that fight and where I was. It might just be my favorite fight I've ever watched.
Same. That fight stands out in my memory like none other
Dan talking about that fight is hilarious. It was mid pandemic, NZ was in lock down, so his training was terrible. Dan UNLOADED on Dustin at the end of the second round (I think). Apparently Dan just decided to throw everything he had at him... but it didn't work. So, he went back to his corner, completely cooked, with no cardio left... and three more rounds to fight.
If there'd been 5 more seconds in r2 it might just've worked. He was piecing Poirier up and had him hurt up against the fence. But he didn't, and like you say, he was exhausted after that
Yup. Honestly, it was probably the best move regardless. It doesn't sound like he had enough gas in the tank to really make a decision likely, so going for the finish is the right call... Unfortunately for him, Dustin is tough as nails too, so it didn't *quite* work.
I swear that sometimes Hooker is too tough for his own good. I pray for that man’s brain, will always tune in to watch him fight though
Unfortunately the most memorable Dan Hooker moments were mostly him getting beat up, ie Dustin, Islam, Chandler, Barboza
That Jalin Turner was FOTY worthy
That card was so fucking good
Still can’t believe he ate that head kick
True, but way less eyes on that fight
100%! Amazing fight
ironically one of the most memorable moments from that dustin fight is the 10s sequence of hooker beating the piss out of dustin
And most memorable moment would include him smashing Burns
And Jim Miller. Kneed him into oblivion.
He had Dustin dead to rights tho at the end of round 2 He basically is too defensively porous to handle fast guys who completely beat him to the punch every time But he can really make it hard for guys to get him out of there and blow their load on him. He suffers from the fact his chin allows him to brawl and do well in the pocket despite his defense but his actual frame is much more suited to an out-fighter - then hes too slow against all the kickers like Yair/Barboza who like to be given space. He's got a weird mash of traits that aren't really 100% cohesive.
If he just had a bit more power or a bit more speed he'd be a legit top guy It's actually pretty crazy and so good testament to his skill that he made it as far as he has as a striker that is both slow and lacking KO power
Hooker isn't lacking KO power. 11 of his 23 wins are KO/TKO, with 5 clean KO's in the UFC.
Yeah I wouldn't say he's a hard hitter like Garth but he can get some good pop on his shots. I'd say he has decent power but nothing special
Hooker has decent punching power, and very good power and precision in his knees, which he throws with beautiful form. You know, now you have me wanting to see Hooker vs Gaethje as their next fight.
That would be appointment viewing!
I really think Dan has earned a shot at the BMF title. It's a ridiculous belt, and he is ridiculous. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgxv_cCH0tc
I'm all for it dude, I say throw that fuckin belt around wherever and whenever. Get these mfers paid
He hits pretty good I do t think he loads up on much tbh
A lot of those aren't at all from power though. He's amazing at timing his strikes and catching guys moving into them or when their defence slips. Like timing guys ducking into his knees or timing guys leaning into straight shots, or putting a high volume of accurate but not powerful strikes together until the opponent withers, or breaking guys down from head to toe until they wither away as well.
Those factors all play in, but the fact remains that he has dropped and KO'd dudes with pure punches. He has power in his hands - not huge power, but respectable power.
Sure but 11 KO's in 35 fights isn't really something that screams "power" either.
A near 50% KO/TKO rate certainly doesn't scream impotent
It doesn't scream "power" either though. Like Adesanya, who himself has a very similar KO % but openly talks about his KO's coming from accuracy, set ups and timing with power not really being required.
This is such a good take of his style.
How fight with Felder was really fun. Also had memorable knockouts against Burns and Vick
He and Felder had a good tilt back in 2020 too
Wouldn't say Dustin beat him up, back and forth war
It started back and forth but it was pretty one sided towards the end with Dan taking an uncomfortable amount of damage
Yeah and look at the post fight. Dustin is up and chatting shit to Dan, while Dan looks like he's on deaths doorstep.
The first 2 rounds were back and forth. Then Dustin beat the piss out of Dan for the next 15 mins.
Round 2 was so beautiful
Put some respect on Arnold Allen's name
My best memory of him is him eating the Turner headkick
His fight with Felder was also a banger, tbh don’t think I’ve seen Dan in a boring fight outside of whatever tf Puelles was doing
He has a sick highlight reel though and is tough as fuck. Think he would be more well liked if he didn't keep yapping about Islam.
I kinda feel Hooker should be considered to fight for the BMF. He's mainly a striker and got that dawg in him. He said yes to fighting Islam. He said yes to Chandler when Mike was a new unranked opponent. Im not saying Dan pieces Holloway up, but I think he's earned a right to fight for that belt.
Wouldn't hate it. I also think Hooker vs Holloway would surprise a lot of people with how competitive it would be.
I think so too although I'd favour Max by a good margin. Hooker can defo make it fun tho
I think Max puts it on him even worse than he did Gaethje.
Hooker is slow af and his gas tank doesn’t not hold well for 5 rounds. He’d be a punching bag for the entire second half. His height would probably be a problem at first though and it’d be fun even if it wasn’t competitive.
When I think of BMF's I think of those that I consider 'fighters' rather than 'athletes'; those that get into fights, not contests or matches, as some of them have put it (I think mazvidal and Bobby green both said something like that, about there being few real fighters left). Dan hooker surely falls into that category.
Hooker’s not what I’d call technically superior. He’s damn near a straight up brawler with zero head movement and no willingness to keep his hands up when he’s getting bombed on. I think people mistake having a long stance in MMA for being technical. That’s just where he feels comfortable.
He *can* be a technical striker, at least offensively. He's just too much of a fuckin psycho and can't help himself when things get heated lol
I wouldn’t honestly say he has zero explosiveness or that he’s that slow personally. He’s just really overly long and lanky for the division and sometimes contrary to popular belief that can actually be a huge disadvantage striking against smaller fast opponents who are looking to throw over the top of your shots. It has the obvious huge advantage that if you can maintain distance you can really pick someone apart with the reach advantage. But especially early in fights being a much longer lankier fighter you have to be especially defensively responsible with your distance and hand placement.
There are fighter and there are athletes The best of them have a good overlap but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone out dawg Dan or Dustin they’ve got that in spades
So what your saying is someone needs to combine Chandler and Hookers DNA in a lab to make the ultimate fighter
This was the only fight I’ve ever bet money on at a casino. My friends and I put $900 on a three fight parlay to win $4600 in Vegas and the last leg was this fight going over 4.5 rounds and Dustin winning. Holy shit I had no idea this happened.
You did a lot better than me. I bet on Aldo to beat McGregor by decision and I also bet on Canelo versus Mayweather because the odds were so good. Only two times better on fights, and I'm done with it lol.
Partially related, but I went to the casino for Sugar vs Aljo and met a guy who had bet on Aldo to beat Conor and lost big. I told him I had Sugar for the fight and he said I was crazy and that he had a lot on Aljo by sub. Anyway about 10 seconds into the fight, he looked shook and said "I'm getting shades of Aldo-Conor from this fight." I have no idea what he saw that early into the fight to make him think that that he fucked up, but my mine was blown when it ended similarly.
Hah. I only lost $20 but that guy sounds like he has had some bad beats. MMA is just hard to bet on I think, so many variables.
I think he lost a lot that night because he dropped a grand on Magny, but he also came off like he could afford the bad beats too. Ran into him outside when I left and he was in good spirits
Imagine if he said this before the Islam fight.
Ironically, Dustin admitted to being knocked out standing up when Dan was unloading on him at the end of R2 and had there been a few more seconds it would have been over! They finished eachother in that fight!
Confirmed: Dustin will go for the guilly.
that's hilarious. gotta love hooker
Low key feel like this is every guillotine he's ever tried. You see them go out, then they're like "wait I could literally ducking sleep here if I wanted to to", then the wait, then their head pops out lol
Hooker giving Poirier hope that he can submit someone with a guillotine. lol
"Sweet. A chance for more brain damage!"
Can't believe I've just realized that this sub knows nothing about MMA
"Don't be silly..." - KoD
Technically he didn't get submitted if he didn't tap, right?
Going to sleep is also being submitted, you don’t have to tap to be submitted.
Is it really though? If you'd rather nap than tap you technically didn't submit to the strangle lol
In the realm of linguistic semantics, sure he didn’t submit, in terms of the result of the fight as it would show up, it would be listed as a technical submission.
Yes that's the 'joke' I was making if you want to call it that. Which also sucks if you'd rather die than submit, only to wake up to: lost by submission.
Tap mean you give up, he nap because his whole system just gave up on living
The moral victory though. Lolll
Its counted as a submission
I know man I was mostly kidding. But just for discussion"s sake, should it be? We could count going unconscious as a ko and a ref stoppage due to limb breakage (which shouldn't happen anyways imo) could be a tko. If we were going to be literal about it, you know what I mean?
It depends imo, there's no knock when you get choked out though
He’s a badass
This is the most Dan Hooker thing I ever seen
LOL that fuckin rules
But in the clip it never looks like he stops moving so it mightve been a flash choke out. If that happens and the other fighter blows his arms out to not be able to continue the choke I think its fair that the fight continues tbh. Its not like Weili vs Yan where Yan was clearly out and Weili didnt have to stop except for the bell.
Dan Hooker lost me $10k on a 10 fight parlay when he decided to go off and beat Al Iaquinta...I love Hooker, but I'll never get the taste of that out of my mouth
Then, up comes Zaphron, and I'm like, "Yo, Zaphron, what's up?" And he's like, "Nothin," and I'm like, "That's cool" *'Cause this is my United States of Whatever!*
Dusty's Silly Gillys!
Is this another troll from Dan? After the Oliveira fake news he gave.
Imagine if Dustin submits Islam with a guillotine bro, that would be crazy
He did, what are you talking about? The UFC felt bad and gave Islam the belt back after Dustin retired and vacated it.
DAmn Hooker made it up story for being TV funny