Dan Hooker has waited months to get his hands back in the cage after a lingering hand injury kept him out of action. However, the wait paid off the moment the UFC offered him Arman Tsarukyan in the main event of its first-ever event in Qatar, exactly the matchup he wanted, with a title shot promised to the winner. For Hooker, this fight isn’t just about rankings. It’s personal.
“My original problem with him was when he first came into the UFC and pretty early on he was chiming in and discrediting my skill set, discrediting my accomplishments, saying I don’t want to fight him and I’m running from him and things like this,” Hooker told MMA Fighting. “I feel like he’s kind of kicked that off or opened that door and answer back and stand my ground.”
Tsarukyan’s comments stuck with him, and once the UFC sent the contract, Hooker jumped on it. However, their tension goes deeper than trash talk, it goes into upbringing, privilege, and mentality.
Tsarukyan comes from wealth, with a family construction business worth nine figures. He admits it. He even chalks the criticism up to jealousy. However, Hooker sees something else, entitlement.
“I feel like we just come from different places,” Hooker explained. “I feel like he’s just a rich little spoiled kid and he acts like that. Pulling out of a title fight the day before and people have seen my career. They’ve seen me take the knocks. They’ve seen me pick myself back up. They’ve seen me just tough it out and come from nothing, the first New Zealand based fighter to make it to the UFC. Look at it now, we’ve been able to grind something out.
“I feel like I’m a fighter for the working man and represent hard working and sticking at it and getting things out and accomplishing what you want through that. I feel like he’s had everything handed to him. The best coaches and the best training and fly around here and just kind of had the easy road. It’s the working man versus Richie Rich.”
Hooker made it clear early that he won’t be bullied, especially after watching Tsarukyan nearly get into a brawl with Bobby Green in a hotel. If Tsarukyan brings that same energy to fight week, Hooker isn’t backing down.
“I don’t think it’s just talk,” Hooker said. “I don’t even like to say in this situation I’ll do this. I feel like he’s just a mouthy little rich prick and I’m just not a person that backs down. That’s just the situation we’re in.
“We’re just going to have to wait and see until we see each other. I’m not a person that you can just push around and bully and expect to back down. I’m going to stand my ground 10 times out of 10.”
So far, fight week has stayed calm, but this matchup doesn’t need a hotel scuffle to sell itself. In the cage, the narrative is clear: Hooker’s striking versus Tsarukyan’s suffocating wrestling. The classic war of styles.
Hooker isn’t running from the grappling exchanges. In fact, he welcomes them.
“I feel like I’ve improved in my wrestling in the last couple of years, especially with this time off, I feel like my mentality has changed a lot,” Hooker said. “I feel like Charles Oliveira showed it in the [Mateusz] Gamrot fight, it’s something that you just have to do. You can’t just say I’m fighting a wrestler, I’m going to avoid the wrestling. Charles Oliveira, he started shooting takedowns. You can’t avoid anything. Anything you avoid, you’re running scared. So if Arman wants to wrestle, we can wrestle. I’ll be there for it 100 percent. If he wants to grapple, we can grapple. I’m not too concerned with that. I’m going to go out there and do what I do.
“It’s something that you can’t avoid anything. You have to meet it head on. I’ll be happy to wrestle. As he says, ‘I’m going to wrestle him and make him tired.’ We can wrestle but we’re both going to get tired. I’m just very experienced at being tired inside of that cage. It’s not something that I’m going to shy away from. It’s not something I’m trying to avoid. If he wants to wrestle, we can wrestle but I guarantee he’s going to get tired first.”
The stakes are already high, but now Hooker has even more motivation, a guaranteed title shot if he wins. Still, he refuses to look past Saturday. His focus is solely on beating Tsarukyan and clearing him out of the lightweight picture for good.
“I got the fight by telling the matchmakers please let me get rid of this guy,” Hooker said. “I said please let me smash Arman’s face and get him out of the way. Next thing I walked into the fight. So my prayers have been answered.”
