Dan Hooker tweets Dana White to come back to New Zealand

Dan Hooker set to make featherweight return at UFC London against Arnold Allen

Dan Hooker will be making the drop to featherweight once again.

After Hooker’s loss to Islam Makhachev at UFC 267, he hinted at doing a test cut to featherweight which he made with ease. Now, a few months later, the UFC announced Hooker will return to featherweight at UFC London on March 19 against Arnold Allen. The main event of the card sees Tom Aspinall face Alexander Volkov at heavyweight.

Dan Hooker (21-11) is currently ranked eighth at lightweight and coming off the first-round submission loss to Makhachev. Just a month before, he defeated Nasrat Haqparast by decision at UFC 266 to return to the win column after being knocked out by Michael Chandler at UFC 257.

Hooker fought at featherweight in the UFC from 2014 to 2016 where he went 3-3. During that time, he beat Ian Entwistle, Hatsu Hioki, and Mark Eddiva, while he lost to Maximo Blanco, Yair Rodriguez, and Jason Knight. In his career, he holds notable wins over Gilbert Burns, Jim Miller, Paul Felder, Al Iaquinta, and James Vick among others.

Arnold Allen (17-1) is the seventh-ranked featherweight and hasn’t fought since April of 2021, where he defeated Sodiq Yusuff by decision. He’s currently 8-0 in the UFC as he has beaten the likes of Gilbert Melendez, Nik Lentz, Mads Burnell, and Makwan Amirkhani among others. This will be the fifth time that the Brit fights at home in London in the UFC. Prior to signing with the UFC, Allen fought for Cage Warriors and M4TC where he was the lightweight champ.

With the addition of Hooker vs. Allen, UFC London is as follows:

  • Alexander Volkov vs. Tom Aspinall
  • Jake Hadley vs. Allan Nascimento
  • Luana Carolina vs. Molly McCann
  • Cody Durden vs. Muhammad Mokaev
  • Makwan Amirkhani vs. Mike Grundy
  • Jack Shore vs. Timur Valiev
  • Shamil Abdurakhimov vs. Sergei Pavlovich
  • Arnold Allen vs. Dan Hooker
  • Gunnar Nelson vs. Claudio Silva
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Cole Shelton
Cole Shelton covers MMA for BJPenn.com, MMANews, and MyMMANews.com while also being the lead MMA odds writer for Sports Betting Dime