UFC fan-favorite Dan Hooker took to The AllStar’s MMA Live UFC Vegas 52 reaction show on Saturday evening and addressed a now widely circulated tweet directed at lightweight veteran Rafael dos Anjos.
dos Anjos put his feelers out on the social media platform a few hours before the weekend’s scheduled UFC event went live, in the hopes of securing an opponent for a date between July and the end of August.
*UPDATE: since the writing of this article, Dos Anjos has responded to Hooker’s offer:
“I was gonna leave it,” Hooker told co-host John Hyon Ko.
“I sat on that all day… I was like I’m not gonna talk shit. I’m coming off some bad losses, I’m not gonna talk shit… let’s just sit it out.”
However, as the weekend’s fight card had concluded, and dos Anjos was still yet to receive any expressions of interest on the Twittersphere, the ‘Hangman’ felt obliged to raise his hand for the task.
“I went to the trampoline park with my nieces, I was there all day. Come home, watch UFC, still no one else – still no one else said nothing.”
“Well hey,” the Kiwi said from behind his trademark grin “I can only bite my tongue for so long… and there’s only one way I can go about it, a good old-fashioned ‘Smash ya face in’.”
Regarding the somewhat controversial topic of what weight the New Zealand native will make his return at, he laughed before subtly hinting at a return to the lightweight division.
“Dan is fucking enormous at the moment. I couldn’t go to featherweight even if I wanted to.”
“I never make the same mistake twice,” Hooker continued, “I make it five or six times, just to be sure – this was seven times [cutting to featherweight], so I’m sure.”
With dos Anjos seemingly targeting a return to action in August – the same month an Australian UFC event is rumored to take place – Hooker feels the timing is right, claiming “There’s things I know, and things I’m not aware I should say” – a statement that only serves to add further fuel to the speculative fire surrounding the prospect of a fight card in the land down under.
“I’ve heard some things, that’s all I’m gonna say. Obviously, no one tells me that sort of stuff.”
For the most part, Hooker kept his lips sealed regarding the rumored event, but when discussing the opportunity to fight on the same card as his teammates once again, he let slip;
“I have a lot of dates that I know are concrete, but I’m not sure everyone else should know that they’re concrete, you know what I mean…”
“August sounds good to me, that’s all I’m saying.”
