Dan’s the man for Islam: Hooker hailed as ‘savage’ as Kiwi ‘set to step in to face rising Russian UFC contender Makhachev’
Dan Hooker is set to step in to face UFC lightweight contender Islam Makhachev at UFC 267 in a month's time, according to reports, after the Russian's previous opponent Rafael Dos Anjos pulled out to undergo knee surgery.
ESPN reporter Brett Okamoto broke the news on Instagram, and says it came straight from UFC president Dana White.
Hooker was last seen in action just this past weekend at UFC 266.
After overcoming visa problems to arrive in Las Vegas a day before the weigh-in, the New Zealander managed to make weight and then beat Nasrat Haqparast on the cards to improve to 28-10.
As game as ever, he will now try his luck against submissions expert Makhachev, who is unbeaten in six years on 20-1 overall, with just four weeks to spare until fight day on October 30 in Abu Dhabi.
Last seen in action in July, where he finished Thiago Moises via a rear-naked choke in the fourth round of a headline bout on ESPN, Makhachev will be pleased to have secured another opponent after a nasty back-and-forth with former lightweight champion Dos Anjos.
"I don’t believe that you’re injured...again," he wrote on Twitter, while tagging the Brazilian and leaving the hashtag #chickenfever.
Do you really think I would fake a surgery? Coming out of another terrible injury. Unlike you I have a family that depends on me and I don’t have another man paying my bills. https://t.co/PDvQ2rhZsq
"Do you really think I would fake a surgery coming out of another terrible injury?" Dos Anjos asked.
"Unlike you I have a family that depends on me and I don’t have another man paying my bills," he scathed, in reference to Makhachev's pal in retired 29-0 great Khabib Nurmagomedov supposedly propping him up.
Makhachev replied with another hashtag that read "Big Drama Show" in the mold of boxer Gennady Golovkin, and then called out a string of other fighters.
"Justin [Gaethje], Dustin [Poirier], Tony [Ferguson], Beniel [Dariush], Hooker, [Michael] Chandler or Floyd Mayweather, doesn’t matter.
"Oct 30 I’ll be in Abu Dhabi," he raged.
At least now the UFC appears to have delivered one of those names to him.
And Hooker will also be pleased after demanding the fight since the summer when he said that the "boring" rising Russian should "give Khabib his homework back".
Online, fans hailed the 31-year-old Kiwi for stepping in.
“No freakin’ way. What a savage. This man will get all the street cred…again,” said UFC commentator John Gooden.
“Big respect for dan he is a true fighter,” wrote one fan, while another called Hooker “the real BMF.”
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