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Dan Hooker is not buying into the idea that other fighters are avoiding a fight with Islam Makhachev as the latter's camp has been claiming for a while now.
'The Hangman' jokingly took a shot at Islam Makhachev in an interview with It's Time For Sports at City Kickboxing gym in Auckland. Hooker said that the narrative of other fighters ducking the Dagestani lightweight is entirely false.
Dan Hooker hints that the only reason some fighters are refusing to fight is because the bout does not make sense for them ranking-wise. Once Makhachev gets himself to a higher position or manages to get the UFC belt around his waist, everyone will be willing to fight him, regardless of his skills.
"He [Islam Makhachev] sits there and says, hand on his heart - maybe he truly believes it, maybe he truly believes that everyone's afraid of him - but it's like you watch, you get in a good position and then all of a sudden no one's afraid of you anymore. You wait till you got a bit of gold around your waist and you watch the top thousand guys in the world instantly stop being afraid of you. It just works like magic. I just think it's funny there's the - they're running with the false narrative or you're just copying Khabib's time right there."
Dan Hooker also addressed the fact that Islam Makhachev left him out when naming fighters he would like to face next. Hooker said he was not at all surprised by the exclusion.
"Nah, I am not like surprised. I'm not surprised. I feel like that fight doesn't make sense. But that's like from me and that's like what it comes down to. The fight has to make sense. The fight has to make sense for both guys. Before, it didn't make sense for me. Now it doesn't make sense for him. But that's what it is. I think the fans that truly watch it, understand that it doesn't make sense. That's why I didn't mind chiming in and giving him a bit of a 'chicken talk'."
By "chicken talk," Dan Hooker referred to the series of tweets he posted after Islam Makhachev successfully defeated Thiago Moises on Saturday at UFC Vegas 31.
Check out the tweets below:
Islam Makhachev: "Who is Dan Hooker?"
Dan Hooker had previously called Islam Makhachev out in an interview with James Lynch. The Kiwi said that if Makhachev could get the job done on Saturday and said his name, he would be up for the fight.
In response, Islam Makhachev dismissed the idea, citing Hooker's three losses in his last six fights as the reason.
"Dan Hooker posted something today, 'If Islam won this fight and called me...', but who is Dan Hooker, you know? Now he's number eight. In his last six fights, he lost three times. I need someone who will bring me to call for the belt, but I don’t think Hooker is a big step for me."
Dan Hooker has lost twice in a row to Dustin Poirier and Michael Chandler and is currently not booked for a fight either.
