Prizefighters want money; is that such a bad thing?
Resident Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) madman Dan Hooker is currently waiting for his next assignment after defeating Mateusz Gamrot at UFC 305 last year in what ended up being ‘Fight of the Night.’
After a rough two years from 2020-2022 in which “The Hangman” lost four out of five fights, three by stoppage, the “Turtle in a Tree” is back in the Lightweight title conversation – and this time, he isn’t selling a title shot for money.
“Who knew actually training for UFC fights is a great idea? These are things you learn,” Hooker said in an interview on Israel Adesanya’s YouTube channel. “I understand what I did, and it’s just different stages in your career. Like at that stage in my career [in 2020], I just wanted money, and [UFC] capitalized on that, and I sold my title shot. At the end of the day, that’s what it came down to. I just wanted money, then I got money, and I was like, ‘That’s not cool; I want a world title,’ and you can’t trade money for a world title.”
Hooker is now on a three-fight win streak and is on the verge of a title eliminator (possibly with Justin Gaethje), but it took Hooker changing his goals to get there.
“I got money,” Hooker laughed when asked what changed in his mentality. “You have to constantly give yourself new goals. Obviously, early on, you want to be a UFC fighter, and then you become one, and you’re like, ‘This isn’t it.’ And then you wanna be ranked UFC fighter, but you want more, and then you want to be a main event fighter. Then you win a main event, and you’re like, ‘This is shit as well, I want something else’…At the end of the day, chasing the goal is the extra fun part, it’s not sitting back and holding on to that goal. Once you do that, you’re trading order.”
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