Dan Hooker reveals if he regrets taking the Islam Makhachev fight at UFC 267
Dan Hooker recently revealed his thoughts on fighting Islam Makhachev at UFC 267.
'The Hangman' was interviewed by Ariel Helwani in the latest episode of The MMA Hour. When asked if he regrets taking the Islam Makhachev fight, Dan Hooker said he did not.
Speaking to Helwani, the Kiwi fighter explained:
" Nah, nah I don't regret it. I don't regret taking a fight, like it is just what it is... I was taken down and submitted, like obviously, and should have done more submission grappling. Like it's blatantly obvious... like people know the situation, I don't need to sit here and make up any kind of excuses. Like people know the situation, there's no need to explain it... but it's always what, like, reflecting on ends, dwelling on and sitting on there and beating yourself over something. It's not worth the time, you got to look at the future and how you can get yourself back into the positions that you want to be in or you feel like you should be competing in."
Further into the conversation, Dan Hooker also admitted that he had made some dumb mistakes that deprived him of a win over the Dagestani fighter.
Catch the latest episode of The MMA Hour featuring Dan Hooker below:
Dan Hooker talks about the mistakes that handed him a loss against Islam Makhachev at UFC 267
Dan Hooker reflected on his UFC 267 defeat to Islam Makhachev and the errors he believed he made that night. 'The Hangman' insisted that his first-round submission vs. Makhachev was the result of a sequence of errors.
Speaking to Oscar Willis on the inaugural episode of the Pub Talk podcast, Dan Hooker said:
“I wouldn’t say like, one little mistake. It’s like a series of mistakes. The circumstances are like, completely irrelevant. I’m talking about like, in the fight; just some mistakes that just shouldn’t have been made... I would just say he’s super patient. He’s just real patient. He got the takedown, which was obviously my bad. Secured it; my bad again. That’s two of the many mistakes. But yeah, he was just quite comfortable waiting there. So, again I tried to force it a little bit too much, like getting back up and obviously exposing it. I wasn’t comfortable just sitting there and just staying there for the next three minutes.”
Dan Hooker also highlighted the fact that his loss was not linked to his accepting the fight on short notice.
Catch the conversation between Dan Hooker and Oscar Willis below: