“The biggest tell”- Arnold Allen admits the referee stepped in to save Dan Hooker at the right time
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Arnold Allen and Dan Hooker
Dan Hooker and Arnold Allen who are arguably the nicest guys in the UFC had an intense first-round exchange where both of them tried really hard to get the better of the exchanges. Dan caught Arnold once pretty bad but then Arnold got the job done with his barrage of punches.
Dan Hooker was quite disappointed after his swift loss after he traveled around the world and cut weight to face Allen, was pretty excited too to come back to the division. Allen told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour that he and Dan shared the sauna and exchanged pleasantries but also added to talk about how nervous he was.
Arnold Allen on The MMA Hour said that his game plan was to take away Dan’s reach with his footwork which would cut half of the power at least and Hooker would face an issue, which is exactly what happened. “The man himself didn’t complain about it[Stoppage] and that was the biggest tell for me” said Allen after Izzy said that the referee could’ve waited just a while longer since he was rooting for his friend.
“I couldn’t believe how nervous he was” – Alexander Volkanovski on Arnold Allen’s body language before the fight
When it was first noted that Hooker wanted to go back down to featherweight, many fans quickly realized that ‘The Hangman’ could wind up facing his friend and fellow City Kickboxing member Alexander Volkanovski down the road. Alex was looking closely at the fight was also amused to look at Allen on how nervous he was. He said:
“Arnold, I knew he was a tough fight anyway, he’s no joke. Dan was putting the pressure on which I thought was okay, because I did notice Arnold looking very nervous. He ended up saying that after the fight and I remember thinking man, he looks so nervous. I couldn’t believe how nervous he was.”
Allen also had a few thoughts on Dan’s choice on moving down a weight class. He said “I personally didn’t think it was the best choice,” “If anything, someone like that, going up [in weight] maybe again would be a good idea, but he knows his body, he knows how he feels. But yeah, I think his best work’s at lightweight. Not a knock at him or anything obviously, but I don’t think making that extra cut is a good choice.”
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