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Join our fantasy SRP league'Wouldn’t have it any other way': Dan Hooker ready to re-embrace the chaos in Sydney
Stephen Foote • January 28th, 2026 2:39 pm
Dan Hooker | Photo: Photosport
Win or lose, one thing you could never accuse Dan Hooker of is playing it safe.
'The Hangman' will enter the Octagon for a 24th time on Sunday when he squares off with surging lightweight contender Benoit Saint Denis in the co-main event of UFC 325 in Sydney.
A win over the rising Frenchman would vault Hooker into an elite tier of a division which includes some of the toughest point-for-pound matchups in the promotion - a chance to bounce back into the win column and derail a fast-charging hype train.
Regardless of the stakes, you can be guaranteed another serving of the raw and unsanitised combat upon which the Aucklander has forged his reputation as a universally beloved UFC cult hero.
Put it this way - he certainly won't be overthinking things. Dan Hooker is gonna Dan Hooker.
"You obviously get all these fancy game plans and stuff like that, but once I'm actually enjoying the fight and the crowd's going nuts and they're all screaming and they've got that thirst for blood going on, it changes a bit," Hooker told Sport Nation's Fight Club podcast.
"You get caught up in the fight, you get caught in having a good time and letting them fly.
"It's the same things that make you strong, make you weak in the sport. It's a downfall of mine, but I wouldn't have it any other way."
Nor would the fans, and there'll be 21,000 of them in his corner come fight time at Qudos Bank Arena, where the ANZAC camaraderie will be in full, vocal effect.
The patented Hooker fight philosophy | Fight Club
Hooker has made a habit of shining across the ditch. It began all the way back in 2015 with a head-kick KO of Hatsu Hioki in Adelaide, before submitting Mark Eddiva in Brisbane a year later.
He dismantled Al Iaquinta at UFC 305 in Melbourne back in 2019, then continued with his iconic upset defeat of Mateusz Gamrot in Perth two years ago (AKA the '"I love this shit boys" one).
Add to that mix wins over Ian Entwhistle (his UFC debut) Ross Pearson and Paul Felder on Aotearoa soil and Hooker is near undefeated in Australasia - his lone blemish a points defeat to Jason Knight in Melbourne in 2016 - a 7-1 win/loss ratio.
"The Aussie crowds are just different," he explains.
"In Vegas, obviously you have a lot of fight fans, but there's a lot of people that are just in town just to catch. show, so they're not like the diehards. But everyone that shows up to a UFC event in Australia is an Anzac MMA fan.
"They're there, they want to see the boys do well. They want to support and be a part of that moment. The fans are more invested, they're more invested in you, they're invested in the result."
Standing in the way of Hooker maintaining that record will be the No. 8 ranked Benoit Saint-Denis, whose glittering 2025 has turned him into a fighter touted as a future title contender.
The 30-year-old from Nimes had his hand raised three times last year, all of those fights finishing inside the distance, two of them by way of his savage submission game. Just ask Mauricio Ruffy about that face crank in NYC - pure nightmare fuel.
Fresh off a tough night out against another grappling specialist and elite contender in Arman Tsarukyan just a month ago in Qatar, it's an undeniably daunting challenge.
Hooker is savvy and experienced enough to realise where his bread his buttered, and and how the real money is made. There's no breaking this mould, and his risk-averse approach has paid off in spades.
"From very early on in my career, I haven't had so much to protect," he notes. "I know full well that I can mentally bounce back and I can get myself back to the position. So I don't mind taking those kind of risks because I haven't had a manicured career.
"There are a lot of champions in the UFC who haven't made as much money as I have because I go out there and put on exciting fights and I fight absolutely anyone they put in front of me. That's the funny part about it."
Photo: Getty Images
Working in Hooker's favour is the quick turnaround from December, which has been a rarity through the veteran's career, where injuries have been a persistent disruption.
Those back-to-back fight camps have Hooker as primed as he's ever felt heading into a bout, a chance to immediately wash the sour taste of defeat out of his mouth - and it's no secret he'll be trying to ensure the contest remains in the stand-up realm for as long as humanly - and consciously - possible.
"That's the beauty of getting another fight so quickly. We're in the sport of 'you're only as good as your last performance' and you're a loser until you win again. So, the least amount of time you can spend as a loser, the better.
"And it's a good fight. No. 8 ranked, good win streak. I was obviously expecting to fight down a couple of times, but to pretty much get the best matchup you could possibly get and a chance to just turn it right around and to get straight back in the mix in the next fight is an outstanding opportunity."
"I think Saint-Denis is pretty straightforward. He likes to come forward. He'll be trying to cut it off on the cage, he does some very good things in grappling as well - looking to drag you down, push you against the cage and take your back.
"We've been doing a lot of things to stay out in the open and to make sure that you're fighting your fight and you're finding and exchanging in the places where it benefits you."
And awaiting on the horizon, perhaps, whichever way the result goes this weekend, may well be a grudge-settling showdown with 'The Baddy' himself.
Over the past few months, Paddy Pimblett - who fell to a one-sided defeat to Justin Gaethje and Hooker mere days ago - have been trading shots in a battle of one-downsmanhip, no blow low enough to be off limits.
Hooker is a man known to stand upon his words, and the chance to settle the score in combat - but he's not getting ahead of himself just yet.
Either way, rest assured - it'll be a marquee-worthy matchup.
"I would love to get my hands on him," Hooker said of the brash Brit. "But obviously I've got a job to do. He's a tough guy. We'll just see what the UFC wants.
"I can't see me getting past BSD and then making me fight down, so there are some fun fights out there, some big fights.
"What the UFC pay me, it's only going to be big fights. They've got me on a pretty tight wicket, they're not wheeling out 'The Hangman' for a f***ing prelim, let's just say that."
