2021 City Kickboxing UFC Tracker: Dan Hooker Set The Tone, Now UFC 259
In the midst of a global pando, with the City Kickboxing coaches scattered around the world servicing their Kiwi-UFC fighters and their Junior Fa led boxing crew, Dan Hooker casually fought two of the more ruthless scrappers in the UFC lightweight division. In June last year, Hooker went toe-to-toe with Dustin Poirier in five rounds of brutal Mixed Martial Arts and we've all seen what the bro Poirier has done since.
To start 2021, Hooker had all his fun cut short by a hefty left hand from Michael Chandler. Training, lockdowns, travel and quarantines for 2:30mins of fighting. Far from ideal and given everything Hooker has to roll through just to take a UFC fight; super niggly. Throughout all of this, Hooker has operated like a super-kiwi who takes the loss for what it is, keeps any blame tucked away and gets on with making the best of being stuck in Dubai for a month after a tough loss.
Watching Hooker fight and following his career isn't pretty. After jumping up a weight division, Hooker enjoyed a four-fight win streak and that featured four finishes. That led to a fight against Edson Barboza where Hooker resembled a human punching bag and was eventually finished in the third (and final round). Tough to watch as a Kiwi-UFC fan, let alone having any personal connection to Hooker and since that loss in late 2018, Hooker has stepped up to the 'toughest bugger in the UFC' realm.
A slick win over James Vick followed, then a decision win over Al Iaquinta in which Hooker maintained control throughout the fight. In front of a home crowd in Auckland, Hooker started 2020 with a five-round win against Paul Felder and that style of fight ('war' comes to mind) was repeated in losing to Poirier. The Iaquinta fight is the only fight I can remember in following Hooker where it went the distance and Hooker was smooth enough to stay out of the brutal blow for blow mode. In the five-round battles against Felder and Poirier, Hooker won Fight of the Night.
If Hooker isn't finishing fights via his variety of strikes or a submission and it goes the distance - ugh.
That's just Hooker, this is a bloke with a reputation for being tough ... in the UFC. This mentality and pure representation of Aotearoa sport, is why Hooker won't note the difficulties in assembling the CKB coaching staff to corner him or travel with him. Nor the fact that for Hooker, or any CKB fighter, to take a fight in the UFC and thus 'do their job' as professional athletes, they have to travel to either Las Vegas or Abu Dhabi in this 2020/21 context.
Compare that to an array of fighters in the United States, some may live in Las Vegas or travel to Las Vegas without any quarantines. It's an achievement in itself for Hooker and his comrades to step into the octagon at the moment, not that Hooker or anyone at CKB offer excuses.
I would have liked to done the Hooker debrief right after his loss to Chandler, but it fell away as I struggled to come up with insights from such a defeat. My mind instantly rolls to how tricky the path to the octagon was for Hooker, plus the mind slots into 'does anyone want to see Hooker go through these fights again?'.
Are these fights good for Hooker's in any way?
Leave it to time. Now we have the massive UFC 259 card headline by Israel Adesanya and in reflecting on Hooker's loss, his journey through the UFC, I reckon it's important to highlight how Hooker sets the tone for CKB. These ideas stretch back through 2020, yet in a tighter view there is serious mana in what Hooker did to start 2021 with the possible CKB menu on offer; as a CKB leader, Hooker has laid out the 2021 vibe for CKB.
Hooker is among the best representatives of Aotearoa around the world.
What do Hooker and Steven Adams have in common? They are viewed as the toughest blokes in their respective sports/leagues.
Like any kiwi athlete, Hooker puts his head down and gets the mahi done. In the mist of defeat, there are no excuses or the fluff that UFC media likes to whip up. Cop the loss, it's not the end of the world, learn some things and keep it moving in positive motion. CKB isn't the gym where Adesanya trains, CKB is one of the best combat teams in the world, CKB is a whanau and Hooker is the athlete who leads his folk.
It was Hooker who went to Abu Dhabi without any of the regular CKB coaches - they were busy elsewhere. That's a sacrifice Hooker made for the betterment of his team and the wellbeing of his coaches, also allowing for opportunity as Hooker assembled his own coaching staff and like Adesanya, Brad Riddell and Carlos Ulberg did last year while stuck in USA, Hooker went about his elongated stay in the middle east getting better.
That's the tone set for 2021, the example laid down by Hooker for his CKB homies to follow. This weekend at UFC 259, Adesanya moves up a weight division as the middleweight champion to take on light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz. Kai Kara-France will fight Rogerio Bontorin and Ulberg will make his UFC debut against Kennedy Nzechukwu.
I'll drop a bigger preview for this card soon. Here's some quick notes that I've pondered leading up to this week...
Adesanya can't lose. This is Adesanya having a crack at a heavier weight class and while a win opens up a plethora of opportunities, a loss doesn't do anything to Adesanya's status.
Adesanya's moving up to light heavyweight and Ulberg is fighting at light heavyweight. Ulberg's the main bloke on the CKB roster who is of a similar size to Adesanya and while this is Ulberg's first UFC fight, he's been in the CKB gym slugging away with Adesanya for a long time. Adesanya's got plenty of reps against bigger lads.
Not to mention that Adesanya won all his King in the Ring fights at heavyweight. Adesanya also fought Brian Minto in boxing, after Minto had fought Joseph Parker and Shane Cameron at heavyweight.
Kara-France is coming of a loss to Brandon Royval last year and he's 1-2 in his last three fights.
Kara-France's two losses came via decision, then submission - Royval and Brandon Moreno have quickly moved to the top of the division.
Bontorin is Brazilian, also coming off a loss. Bontorin has 18 MMA fights, 11 wins via submission.
Ulberg won his way into the UFC after a beautiful knockout in Dana White's Contender Series.
Ulberg's last three King in the Ring fights (2019) were all won via KO/TKO.
Nzechukwu has two UFC fights; one submission loss and a decision victory in his last outing.
Nzechukwu also came up through the DWCS, but that was in 2018 and his last UFC fight was in 2019.
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Peace and love.