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Israel Adesanya was seemingly upset with the stoppage in Dan Hooker’s first-round TKO loss against Arnold Allen at Saturday’s UFC London event.
In a video posted to his YouTube channel, Adesanya seemed confident about his CKB (City Kickboxing) teammate Hooker’s striking going into the bout against Allen.
Nevertheless, after realizing that Hooker was badly hurt on the feet, the UFC middleweight champion urged him to shoot for a takedown. Allen continued attacking the Kiwi, who was up against the fence and still on his feet. Moments later, the referee waved off the fight as ‘The Hangman’ had no answer to the Brit’s relentless onslaught.
Seeing the referee wave off the fight, Adesanya exclaimed:
“Come on ref, what the f***!”
He later added:
“It’s hard for me to say, but I feel like I’ve seen later stoppages. And I know Dan. But still. I wasn’t in there, whatever. But like, just, f***. It s**ks. It s**ks, and I feel for Dan because I know how much he puts into this. But as we do this, we’ll be back. Ain’t no sh**. We’ll be back. We’ll be back.”
Watch Israel Adesanya’s live reaction to Dan Hooker’s loss below:
Dan Hooker finds himself in a difficult position in his pro MMA career following his loss to Arnold Allen. It remains to be seen whether the former lightweight mainstay will return to 155 pounds or try again at 145 pounds.
Josh Thomson on a potential Israel Adesanya vs. Colby Covington super-fight
Since becoming the undisputed UFC middleweight champion in 2019, Israel Adesanya has defended his belt four times.
Adesanya has previously suggested that he’d like to defend his middleweight title against Jared Cannonier in June. Interestingly, former interim UFC welterweight champion Colby Covington has been lobbying for a super-fight against the Kiwi champion.
While a few MMA personalities, including Chael Sonnen, love the idea, Josh Thomson believes that 'Chaos' will need a win against a top middleweight contender before challenging the 'The Last Stylebender'.
During an episode of the Weighing In podcast, Thomson opined that Covington's losses to welterweight champ Kamaru Usman don't warrant an immediate title shot at a higher weight class. The former UFC fighter said:
"He would have to go up and he would have to win in my opinion against a quality middleweight before they're ever going to think about putting him against [Adesanya]. They are not going to take him as a guy that lost twice to Usman and put him against the champ."
Watch John McCarthy and Josh Thomson discuss Colby Covington's future below:
