Dan Hooker recently announced that he was moving to the UFC's featherweight division and he kicked things off by making a test cut to 145. H passed with flying colors and he's now looking for a fight.
The New Zealand native was at UFC 269 where he watched his teammate Kai Kara-France knockout Cody Garbrandt. While he was there he also ran into UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby.
“After Kai’s win, (I bumped into) Sean Shelby on the way out, and that’s the first time I’ve heard from him since the featherweight thing,” UFC contender Hooker said on The Mac Life’s Pub Talk (via MMAJunkie). “He’s obviously seen it, and he was like, ‘Well, what are you going to do? 55, 45?’ I said yeah, 45. I can make 45 quite comfortably if I get something good. He goes, ‘Who do you want?’ I said ‘Korean Zombie,’ but he’s injured. What about Ortega? He goes, ‘Oh, I’ll have a look. I’ll send you a list.’ I was amped up.”
The Korean Zombie was the person Dan Hooker originally wanted in the UFC but it seems like that won't be happening for various reasons. Now he's looking to face the always dangerous and very exciting fighter Brian Ortega.
Brian Ortega is coming off of a loss to Dan Hooker's teammate, UFC featherweight champion, Alex Volkanovski at UFC 266. The fight was very exciting and many people want to see who he'll face next.
The matchup would be a tough one for Dan Hooker but it appears like the UFC has an interest in it. The New Zealand international certainly has plenty of options at featherweight.
