The former middleweight champion essentially begged the promotion to find a way to get the CKB team captain on his UFC 305 fight card.
At the UFC 305 press conference last night, several notable fights were announced for the upcoming PPV including Kai Kara-France vs Steve Erceg, Tai Tuivasa vs Jairzinho Rozenstruik, and Junior Tafa vs Valter Walker.
Israel Adesanya begs UFC to add CKB Captain to UFC 305 fight card
Speaking at the UFC 305 pre-fight press conference, former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya lambasted the promotion for failing to secure Dan Hooker a fight on the PPV card.
In fact, ‘Stylebender’ had to interrupt a question from the media as he campaigned for the City Kickboxing team captain to be added to the event, which is set to take place from the RAC Arena in Perth on August 17 (August 18 local time).
“Dan Hooker needs to fight on this card, Dan Hooker needs to fight on this card – it’s atrocious that he’s not even here right now,” he explained.
“I tried to get him here, but he was Sydney last week, but he needs to be on this card… He’ll fight anyone so please, if you want to see this card get stacked even more, put on ‘The Hangman’ Hooker.”
When asked who he thinks the UFC should match Hooker up against, Adesanya simply reiterated the fact that the fan-favorite brawler will fight anyone as long as he’s given the opportunity to put on a show in front of the RAC Arena crowd.
“Hey man, Dan doesn’t give a f*** he just wants to fight. He’s not here right so he can’t speak for himself, so I’ll speak for him – whoever’s watching, Sean, Hunter, Dana, Mick, please put Dan Hooker on this card.”
Last month, Hooker came out to state that he was desperate to get on the UFC 305 card and that he’d even argued with the promotion over them wanting to keep him for a Fight Night main event later in the year.
Now that we know just how much investment the CKB team has in getting ‘The Hangman’ on the UFC 305 card, who could Dan Hooker potentially face in August?
Dan Hooker admits he ‘made up’ news of fighting Charles Oliveira
Well, if headlines were to be believed, Hooker was supposedly meant to have had a fight offer accepted for former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira… Unfortunately, the veteran ‘Hangman’ later revealed to Heavywgt MMA that he’d completely made it all up.
“They should have never let me on the TV, I don’t know who thought it would be a good idea to put me on two national news shows but not only do I break the news, I completely make the news up [too].
“I am certainly picking a fight… I was sitting on the show, and they asked me who I had next, I thought I’d throw a little something out there and I announced that I’m fighting Charles Oliveira at UFC Perth, but we’ll see if it might actually turn into something.”
Given that there appears to be some pushback from the UFC on getting him on UFC 305, it’s understandable that Hooker wanted to stir up a bit of drama and conversation surrounding his next fight.
One other name that was thrown out was Mateusz ‘Gamer’ Gamrot, and Hooker knows that the Polish wrestler would be willing to throw down ‘down under’ should he get the phone call.
“I know Gamrot fights anyone anywhere, so I know he’ll be keen, and I am definitely interested in that fight too… I’m 100% going to get a fight on that card and it’s just coming down to who at this stage.”
As of July 3, 2024, the UFC 305 fight card includes the following bouts.
- Dricus Du Plessis vs Israel Adesanya
- Kai Kara-France vs Steve Erceg
- Tai Tuivasa vs Jairzinho Rozenstruik
- Junior Tafa vs Valter Walker
- Casey O’Neill vs Tereza Bleda
- Josh Culibao vs Ricardo Ramos
- Jack Jenkins vs Gavin Tucker
- Tom Nolan vs Alex Reyes
UFC 305 goes down August 17 live from Perth, Western Australia.