Dan Hooker believes Claudio Puelles fight at UFC 281 is a ‘good test to prove where I belong in the division’
Dan Hooker is excited about his matchup against Claudio Puelles.
Hooker enters the fight on a two-fight losing skid and being just 1-4 in his last five. Yet, he has only fought the best as his losses are to Arnold Allen at 145lbs, Islam Makhachev on short notice, Michael Chandler, and Dustin Poirier.
‘The Hangman’ knows he has holes in his game from those fights as he said the losses have actually helped him improve.
“I definitely feel like I learned from all of those things. These are not mistakes. These are holes in my game that have been there the whole time, but they’ve been covered up by incredible coaching and incredible preparation being surrounded by the best team in the world,” Hooker said at media day. “So when you take that away, these are like flaws in my game that were shown. So now to have processed those kind of things, fixed those holes, improved myself as a fighter and a martial artist and then to re-introduce incredible coaching, to re-introduce phenomenal preparation back into it, and I feel so much better as a fighter because of those challenging circumstances.”
After taking some time away, Dan Hooker is back at lightweight and looking to return to the win column in the UFC 281 main card opener against Claudio Puelles. Although Puelles is not known, he is a tough out but Hooker is excited for the matchup as he believes he can prove just how good he is in this fight.
“This is the perfect fight, this is the right fight,” Hooker said. “After a couple of losses, questions start to get asked by people: Does he belong here? Does he belong there? So I’m happy to answer them. This is a young, hungry kid on a good streak, a lot of finishes. This is a good test to prove where I belong in the division, to prove that I stand my ground. These are the guys I should be competing against, so I’m more than happy to take on Claudio.”
