‘Most Worthy’ BMF Contender Thinks Max Holloway Title Fight Won’t Be Next; Has Other Plans

Lightweight Max Holloway’s BMF title and broken curse to go unchallenged as Dan Hooker thinks he's 'one' big fight away from that matchup.

‘Most Worthy’ BMF Contender Thinks Max Holloway Title Fight Won’t Be Next; Has Other Plans

Dan Hooker one fight away from Max Holloway BMF Challenge (Source: IMAGO/X)

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Max Holloway, seemingly, will hold on to this “BMF” silver for now. ‘Blessed’ fighter indeed as #6-ranked lightweight Dan Hooker, billed most worthy to challenge him, does not see that fight happening any soon. Holloway is fresh off a trilogy win over Dustin Poirier at UFC 318 PPV main event. He even made history with a first successful BMF title defense, and handing Poirier his first ever back-to-back defeat.

UFC peer Gilbert Burns floated veteran Charles Oliveira as the next BMF title contender. Meanwhile, UFC CEO Dana White settled on the fact that Ilia Topuria deserves another crack at it now, with some saying UFC execs should have pushed that idea before.

However, UFC commentator Jon Anik has promoted interesting fighter Dan Hooker as a visceral skills test to Holloway. Many fans and pundits later agreed, given ‘The Hangman’ Hooker made a stride to the lightweight top-5 after some winless run. While he thinks that a fight with ‘Blessed’ makes sense at a BMF level, Hooker doesn’t think it happens next.

That…That’s probably the only fight in terms of the BMF [title] that kinda makes sense…[to me]…But, I’ve been sitting on the couch so long…[See] I’ve been out injured. Fight fans know that. Most people that tune in and watch it, their mind travels very slowly, and I think it’s eight months or something since…So I feel like, and speaking with the UFC, [I’m] gonna need to get another [fight] in and take one of these big name guys out.

Dan Hooker told Denis Shkuratov of the ‘Submission Radio’

Some have discredited Hooker, making strides in rankings. But the fighter is on a neat three-fight streak. His BMF zeal and visceral all-around mettle came forward in his FOTY contenders against Mateusz Gamrot and Jalin Turner. So, he’d once again be in the conversation for such a fight.

However, Hooker knows he remains benched with irregular phases between fights for too long. He mentioned as much during the lead-up to his cancelled fight vs. lightweight Justin Gaethje at UFC 313 PPV. He broke his hand against Gamrot while already having unfused bones in his elbow during the aftermath of UFC 290 vs. Jalin Turner.

Hence, the Kiwi fighter thinks he needs more ranked wins against the ‘top names’ to make a case for a BMF fight. With that in mind, he has already made callouts to Oliveira and #2 lightweight Arman Tsarukyan.

UFC analyst billed Dan Hooker is Max Holloway’s ‘best overall fight’ with permanent residency at lightweight

Max Holloway made a great cut at 155 pounds with a last-second PPV main card knockout. However, he went down to featherweight one more time for a failed bid at the gold. He was knocked out for the first time in his career. With that came a decision from the Hawaiian star to make a more long-lasting shift to lightweight. Subsequently, such a move paved the way for new challenges.

Max Holloway vs. Dan Hooker banger is a fun fight in the lightweight division
Max Holloway vs. Dan Hooker banger is a fun fight in the lightweight division (Source: X)

With Holloway moving up, Dan Hooker is ranked in the top 10, and had won four out of his last five fights. His only loss was a bout against the former champ Islam Makhachev. With three ‘FOTN’ post-fight bonuses and a fight-of-the-year contender (2021), the always-exciting Hangman was a good bet.

Hence, Holloway got the prime advice to make his move against the ‘modern-day Donald Cerrone‘ aka Hooker, in his third coming at lightweight. That is to say: exciting on the mic and cage, and sensible to call his shots.

If I was gonna pick [a] guy that I think would bring out the best overall fight with Max, it’d be Dan Hooker, …Because Dan Hooker, he’s a crazy animal who just keeps coming forward and throwing. His fight with Poirier is still one of the best damn fights. If you look at what was going on in that, it was just crazy…Crowd would be going nuts…Absolutely [yes, a modern-day Cerrone]. Dan Hooker, he wants to fight everybody. I wanna fight next week. I wanna fight next month. I wanna fight, until he gets hurt, and then he’s smart enough to say hey, I gotta heal up.

‘Big’ John McCarthy said pre-fight before UFC 318| WEIGHING IN #589 (@WeighingIn)

Some have considered Holloway’s momentum against top contenders warrants him a title shot, even over legit #1 contender Tsarukyan. So, it could be a fight for either the BMF or undisputed gold next. However, if and when the time comes, a barnburner with Hooker could be one for ages.

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