Dan Hooker claims the UFC likes Charles Oliveira for him next.
Following his split decision win over Mateusz Gamrot on Saturday’s UFC 305 main card at RAC Arena in Perth, Australia, Hooker (24-12 MMA, 14-8 UFC) recounted how he ran into UFC executive Hunter Campbell.
Hooker says the name Oliveira (34-10 MMA, 22-10 UFC) was thrown at him.
“Yeah, they want Charles,” Hooker told The MacLife. “That’s a good fight, but there’s heaps of cool sh*t I could do. The lay of the land is pretty crazy. It’s such a wild sport, as well. We’ll see how it plays out.”
Hooker is open to Oliveira, or even Arman Tsarukyan (22-3 MMA, 9-2 UFC), who’s touted as UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev’s next title challenger.
“I couldn’t care less, mate,” Hooker said. “(I’ll fight) all of them – even Arman. I said to Hunter, I said to Sean (Shelby), I’d like to fight Arman because screw it: We’ll go the toughest way to the title we possibly can. That’s (Jalin) Turner, Gamrot, Arman, Islam. I just don’t care. I would prefer the hardest road to the title that I possibly could. … I hate the prick. I told Hunter I’m going to smash his face in.”
After hearing Bruce Buffer call out his name as the victor, a hyped-up Hooker even mentioned Conor McGregor’s name during his post-fight speech. Hooker said he was just having some fun.
“I didn’t necessarily call him out, I just said that because I am an absolute troll, so it’s like the biggest troll move you could do of all time is to snake that fight off (Michael) Chandler,” Hooker said. “He waits all that time and then Conor just fights me anyway, like, that would be gold. I would feel like the biggest snake troll of all time.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 305.
