UFC 290’s Dan Hooker was ‘so f—ing offended’ by potential Tony Ferguson booking

Dan Hooker is not interested in fighting older veterans like Tony Ferguson.

“The Hangman” made that very clear in a new interview with Submission Radio, where he straight out said the thought of facing Ferguson was “offensive” to him. Ferguson — once among the top names at Lightweight — is currently on a three-year, five-fight losing streak.

At 2-4 over his last six bouts, Hooker isn’t exactly setting the world on fire these days, either. And Hooker didn’t help his situation much by accepting a last-minute fight against Islam Makhachev (which he lost in the first round), and then making an ill-advised drop down to Featherweight to face Arnold Allen (who also beat him in the first round).

Since then, Hooker signed on with Ash Belcastro, who manages many of City Kickboxing’s top names. Ash’s job, in Hooker’s own words, are to keep him from doing “more dumb s—.”

But, Hooker and Belcastro weren’t quite on the same page at first.

“I messaged Ash, oh, what about this guy for the next fight? And he replied, we asked for Tony Ferguson,” Hooker told Submission Radio. “I was so f—ing offended. I was like… that sparked me. I was like, nah, f— this. Like, the doctors were saying, you gotta wait another month for your hand before you can get back into the training. I said, f— that. And I went and sparred the next day, cause I was so offended. I was like, that guy… that’s not what I wanna be, that’s not what I’m here for.

“I’m not here to have the veteran versus veteran fights, I’m here to be the best,” Hooker continued. “I’m here to challenge myself against the best guys in the world. So that, I would say, was the spark for this. I jumped straight back into training. I got as fit as I’ve ever been, and it was like a real turning point. That’s just not something I’m interested in, is fighting people not of that elite, or guys that… as soon as you come out and you say retirement, like, you’ve lost my interest.”

A Hooker vs. Ferguson fight sounds like a pretty solid, high-profile fight to us. Instead, the No. 12-ranked New Zealander will face No. 11-seeded Jalin Turner at UFC 290, which takes place this weekend (Sat., July 8, 2023) inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. A win over Turner would be Hooker’s first ranked win since defeating Paul Felder back in early 2020.

“Oh, it definitely puts me back in the mix,” Hooker said about his UFC 290 fight. “You get a win like that over Turner, you’re back in the top ten, you’re back in the mix. You’re back. People are back on a bandwagon. That’s just the beauty of this, it’s the beauty of the sport. You can change your life in a single night. And, that’s kind of where I feel like things are going here. I’m just excited for that, I’m excited for the contest and I’m excited for how everyone responds to it. But, I already know how it’s gonna go. There’s no question in my mind of how this might go.

“That’s the beauty, boys, what I see in my mind, what I visualize in my mind is the picture I get to go out there and paint,” he concluded. “And so, it’s what I see now, but I can’t show you a sneak peek just yet. You gotta wait and see.”

UFC 290 is headlined by a Featherweight title unification bout between Alexander Volkanovski and interim belt keeper, Yair Rodriguez. Flyweight champion, Brandon Moreno, also defends his belt against Alexandre Pantoja, and Robert Whittaker takes on Dricus Du Plessis in a bout with major Middleweight title implications.

Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 290 fight card right here, starting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. ET, then the remaining undercard on ESPN/ESPN+/ABC at 8 p.m. ET, before the PPV main card start time at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+ PPV.

To check out the latest and greatest UFC 290: “Volkanovski vs. Rodriguez” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.