Dan Hooker is still fighting Brian Ortega in Qatar, and he wants the internet to stop telling him otherwise.
Hooker was the final guest on Wednesday’s edition of The MMA Hour, and Ariel Helwani got him on two subjects. The first was why he signed up to fight again just 77 days after his loss at UFC Paris. The second was the chatter that Ortega had already pulled out of their Nov. 21 matchup at UFC Qatar.
He handled the second one the way you’d expect from a guy who calls himself The Hangman.
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“The amount of fake news saying that Brian Ortega’s pulled out, blah, blah, blah,” Hooker said, before offering his own explanation for why it isn’t happening. “I don’t think I’ve ever had an opponent pull out. I must have a very punchable face. People think they can beat me up because no one ever pulls out on me.”
That’s a better scouting report on his own career than most analysts could give you. Hooker also opened the bit with a jab at the rumor mill, saying he was “excited to see who I’m going to be fighting in Qatar,” before landing on the serious version: he’s excited to fight Ortega, he called it a big fight, and he said he feels like everyone wants to see it.
Why so soon
The quick turnaround came from frustration. Hooker told Helwani that the Paris loss didn’t give him a chance to show anything, which stung after what he described as a hard camp where he’d made real gains in his consistency in training.
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Then he looked at the schedule. When Tom Nolan got matched with Renato Moicano, Hooker said he called his manager, Ash, with a pretty simple pitch. “Surely I can beat Brian Ortega,” he said, adding a crack about Ortega being old as well. The UFC liked the matchup, so he got it.
Nolan and Moicano ended up headlining UFC Vegas 123, where Nolan finished Moicano in the third round for his sixth straight win and a $100,000 Performance of the Night bonus. That one is still being argued about, mostly because referee Dan Miragliotta stood the fight up while Moicano was attacking from back control, shortly before Nolan rocked him with a knee late in Round 2. Hooker, for what it’s worth, picked the right fight to avoid.
The bigger picture
Hooker has an eye on what’s next, too. Earlier this week on Submission Radio, he said Charles Oliveira killed the BMF belt with his grappling-heavy decision over Max Holloway at UFC 326. Oliveira defends that belt against Diego Lopes in the UFC 335 main event on Dec. 12, and Hooker floated the idea that if he beats Ortega and Lopes beats Oliveira, he could be next in line for Lopes.
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He was honest about the odds on that one, saying Lopes getting past Oliveira is a much tougher job than him getting past Ortega. A fighter who answers questions straight, rating his own path and someone else’s like a bookmaker. I’ll take it.
My take: this is the kind of booking I want more of. Hooker loses, hates how it felt, picks a name and asks for it. No emoji teasers, no waiting around for a perfect slot. The pull-out rumors came with no names attached, and the only guy who spoke on the record says he’s showing up. He’ll find out on Nov. 21 whether Ortega agrees that face is as punchable as advertised.
