Dan Hooker recently joined Submission Radio, following his UFC 257 TKO loss to Michael Chandler. During the interview, he cleared the air on a rumor that’s been circulating around the media regarding his retirement.
After the fight, Hooker was seen removing his gloves and throwing them in the UFC octagon. Due to the fact that so many fighters before him have traditionally retired their UFC gloves in the octagon for their last fight, this caused members of the MMA media to suspect that he may be hinting at retirement himself.
“You’re always frustrated after a loss,” Hooker said when asked by Submission Radio about leaving his gloves in the octagon. “Like, you’re balancing everything. Sheer frustration and like you’re disappointed and then you get back to the hotel and I’m like, ‘yeah.’ In that moment I was like, ‘I’m done. I’m finished with this shitty sport. I’m done.’ And then you get back to the hotel, you sit down, and you think about it, and you realize that you’re not good at anything else either, so it’s like, ‘well shit, I’ve kind of painted myself into a corner here.'”
“A loss like this, you’re not like rolling around in depression, like super upset,” Hooker said regarding how he’s handling the loss emotionally. “It kind of is self explanatory, and it is what it is. And I can honestly say like I’m not anymore upset than when I lost the (Dustin) Poirier fight.”
When pressed by host Kacper Rosolowski for a more direct ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer on his retirement, Hooker said, “You invest so much into this sport. You invest so much. Like, you prepare for a bad case but that’s like a whole other level. That’s the first time that that’s ever happened to me in my career. To not only lose, but to lose in that kind of fashion where you’re out back and you’re fine. Like you go back to the hotel, I was like completely – you don’t even feel like you’ve been in a fight. At least, you know, you go out there. You fight your heart out. You get busted up. Someone gets the better of you, but you tried, you went out there. You went out on your shield. You tried. You fought hard. That’s a lot easier to take. I didn’t even feel like I got in a fight. We arrived back at the hotel, and I didn’t even – I was kind of like, ‘is that a bad dream?’ It’s more of a bad dream case scenario.”
Hooker did however hint that he will be looking to potentially callout some big names once he’s fully recovered and back to full contact training.
“Getting hit in the head is not even a thought of mine in the coming months,” Hooker said when asked about a potential bout against Conor McGregor in his next fight. “So I don’t want to sit here and the headlines come out, ‘Dan Hooker’s calling out this guy and that guy.’ Because at this stage right now, I’m not thinking about it. That will come when I’m back in the gym and feeling 100%. When I’m ready to fight and get back in there, then that’s the conversation.”
While Hooker didn’t necessarily answer the retirement question with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, based off listening to the entire interview, it’s safe to say he isn’t looking to retire any time soon.
Despite suffering a TKO loss at UFC 257, Hooker received the minimum for his medical suspension. He was given a 45-day suspension with no contact for 30-days due to TKO loss.
Having fought in January, and having received the minimum medical suspension, fans should expect to see Hooker fight at least one to two more time this year.
Source: Youtube.com
