At this stage in his career, easy fights simply don’t exist for Dan Hooker. For his next order of business, he’ll attempt to play spoiler against UFC newcomer Salahdine Parnasse on Sept. 5 at UFC Paris.
Parnasse’s high-profile signing was revealed this past Saturday during UFC Abu Dhabi. A former two-weight KSW champion, France’s Parnasse enters the UFC lightweight division after long being considered one of the best fighters outside of the promotion. Hooker, however, admittedly had no clue who Parnasse was upon receiving the fight offer. He spoke on the matchup Tuesday on “The Ariel Helwani Show.”
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“He’s got nice hype. He’s got a lot of fans. There’s a lot of fanfare I can see,” Hooker told Uncrowned. “They’re trying to pull stars out of France. That’s obviously a huge market for them. [Parnasse and his team are] planning to skip the queue [into the UFC lightweight rankings]. That’s what it is at the end of the day, to get a fighter into the rankings.
“To beat a ranked fighter is not necessarily the hard part, but there’s like 150-160 lightweights in the UFC. To get from that [back spot] into the top 15, that’s the dangerous part. This kid gets to come along and skip the queue. … He’s got a nice record. He fought on the [MVP MMA] Netflix card. [UFC] had to offer him something he couldn’t refuse.”
Overall, in Hooker’s eyes, the matchup looks like a win-win for the UFC. If he gets back on track against a hot new talent in a Paris main event, that keeps Hooker in the contender mix. If he loses, well, then a fresh new face starts their run at taking over the place.
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But Hooker doesn’t plan to let the French faithful have their fun.
“It’s my job to go to France, go to Paris, in the sold-out main event, and just absolutely ruin it. Ruin his hopes. Ruin his dreams. Ruin everybody’s night,” Hooker said. “They can go home sad, and it will warm my heart and make me sleep like an absolute baby. I am training every day, I am grinding to ruin hopes and destroy dreams.”
The trash talk has already begun ahead of the UFC Paris main event, said Hooker. It’s just not coming his way from Parnasse himself.
Hooker, 36, claimed he’s received death threats aplenty from French fans since the fight was announced last Saturday. He assumes they’re nasty-worded threats, anyway, as he’s been seeing his Instagram inbox bombarded with French banter.
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“I don’t give a f*** about the death threats. I couldn’t care less,” Hooker said. “I don’t know if they run it through Google Translate, but stop messaging me. I’m pretty much a caveman living in the modern times, and for some f***ing reason, all the messages are [filtering] through. There’s a leak.
“Everyone’s just talking s*** in French. I’m getting like a million messages from people. I don’t speak French, and I’m not putting them through Google Translate. Stop messaging me in French. If you’re going to talk s***, at least have the human decency to put your own message through Google Translate and send me the s*** talk in English. I would appreciate that very much.
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“I’m a big freedom-of-speech guy,” Hooker continued. “Shoot your s***, because I’m coming, I’m coming in hot, and I’m coming to f***ing ruin your night. … It’s the funniest thing when you beat [the hometown fighter’s] ass, and while you’re doing your post-fight interview, you look around, and everyone has their head down, and all you can hear is the shuffling of the feet as people start to leave the stadium.”
Despite suffering back-to-back stoppage losses, Hooker remains a hot commodity in the UFC lightweight division. While Parnasse may not have been a fight he would’ve taken as he sought title contention before the losses, the payday was too good to pass up.
Dan Hooker has never been shy about fighting in enemy territory.
(Jeff Bottari via Getty Images)
Hooker said the Parnasse fight will be the biggest fight purse of his career “by a country mile.”
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“My manager, Ash, told me how much money it was, and I said, ‘Viva la Paris,'” Hooker said. “Bro, I love it. I’ve never been to France. That’s one of the big reasons why I first started fighting, to travel to new places. I’m excited to get out there.
“I’m sure not everybody [in Paris] hates me, and I’m sure we’re going to have a really good time out there. I’ve heard terrible things, if that is true, and I want to go see for myself.”
Ultimately, considering the circumstances, Hooker (24-14) has to put it all on the line against Parnasse, and he’s well aware of that. Three straight losses would effectively erase any hopes of a title shot as the veteran nears age 40. So the trip to Paris is clearly a crossroads clash, and the Kiwi knows he’s entering must-win territory.
“It has to be,” Hooker said. “I have to defend my spot. I have to get back in the mix. That’s where I am. Man, I’ve been grinding in the gym for a while now, for a solid four or five months, but the end of this camp is just kind of polishing and adding on some things. But no, I’ve been pissed off for a minute — since the ‘BSD’ [Benoit Saint Denis] loss [in February] — and I’ve been in the gym.”
