UFC’s Dan Hooker vows to be smarter after re-entering top five

Now that he’s again within the prime 5, Dan Hooker will look to take a extra cautious strategy.

Hooker (24-12 MMA, 14-8 UFC) re-entered the UFC’s top-five light-weight rankings after outlasting Mateusz Gamrot at UFC 305 earlier this month. Hooker recollects how the final time he was a extremely ranked contender, he took a giant threat that didn’t repay.

“I form of have discovered that from my first rodeo, is to only form of not do something dumb this time round,” Hooker advised ESPN Australia. “I imply, the final time I used to be No. 5, I agreed to struggle Michael Chandler. Gave Michael Chandler a shot, it was his first struggle within the UFC.

“I flew to Abu Dhabi, so different facet of the world with completely no coache,s and went and fought him with a man I’d been coaching for six months in my nook. It was not the neatest of choices, so I suppose this time round, I’m simply not going to do something dumb or promote my title shot once more.”

Hooker is now extra centered along with his administration and crew guiding him. He revealed that the UFC bounced the thought of Charles Oliveira for him subsequent, and the way he’d even be open to No. 1 contender Arman Tsarukyan.

“The Hangman” went from dropping 4 of 5 to a three-fight successful streak.

“I recognize my crew and my coaches much more than I did earlier than,” Hooker stated. “I had the dangerous string throughout COVID. It was simply clearly very troublesome as a world fighter competing throughout COVID – particularly in New Zealand the place we had a few of the harshest lockdowns on the earth.

“You would simply see in these fights, I used to be doing it with out my coaches and with out my crew. I suppose once I simply got here again, it’s a larger appreciation for the function that these guys play in my profession.”