Dan Hooker slams New Zealand's pandemic rules that prevent him from fighting later this year
UFC lightweight Dan Hooker is not happy about the restrictions put in place by the New Zealand government to keep the COVID-19 pandemic under control.
The 31-year-old took to Twitter to express his feelings about New Zealand's MIQ voucher system. He wrote:
"New Zealand voucher system can eat my whole d***. September/October booked out so if I fight in sept I can't come home until November. And the UFC going to come to NZ..... Dreaming"
New Zealand's "Managed Isolation Allocation" system is a government policy to keep COVID-19 out of the country. It required anyone traveling to New Zealand from outside the country to avail vouchers for MIQ from the New Zealand government's website. After that, travelers are allotted spaces where they must isolate themselves for a specified period before carrying on with their business in the country.
As of now, the calendar for the day-wise isolation space allotment is completely filled up until October. This means that there are no MIQ vouchers available, and thus, one of the steps required for a person to travel to New Zealand is currently inaccessible.
This is what caused Dan Hooker to get so upset about the MIQ voucher process. The lightweight contender last fought in the co-main event of UFC 257 in January 2021. Since then, Dan Hooker has been aching to get back into the octagon. 'The Hangman' even suggested opponents he would like to face, preferably in September. However, as per the availability of MIQ vouchers, Dan Hooker will not be able to return to his family in New Zealand before November.
Dan Hooker gives his views about Dustin Poirier allegedly knocking out a sparring partner
UFC welterweight and former American Top Team fighter Colby Covington recently lashed out at former teammate Dustin Poirier for allegedly knocking out an amateur sparring partner.
When asked about Covington's comments, Dan Hooker revealed that such an occurrence was not all that rare at ATT. In a conversation with Sportskeeda, Dan Hooker said:
"Nah I feel like it's fair game...I don't know. There's no like set rule. It's not like we're in the mafia or anything... Different gyms have different cultures. I've been in some hard sparring gyms and traveled the world. Sparring is different no matter what place your in. Things do happen, guys do get knocked out in sparring. A lot of the time by accident, though sometimes I've seen it done maliciously... People would tell me about Hector Lombard, just running through guys and knocking out his training partners in the gym. That's like common knowledge that that sort of thing happens at ATT. It's no secret."