Dan Hooker’s next fight will be against Nasrat Haqparast at UFC 266 in Las Vegas on September 25th.
The 31-year-old Hooker had actually considered retiring after his last fight back in January, a first round KO loss to Michael Chandler, which came after he’d also dropped a unanimous decision loss to Dustin Poirier.
Nevertheless, he’d won seven of his previous eight fights in the UFC prior to that, defeating the likes of Gilbert Burns, Paul Felder, Al Iaquinta and James Vick, and is still ranked No.8 in the division, so after taking time to reflect he decided to continue with his fighting career after all.
For the first time in a long time he’ll be going up against a less high-profile fighter than usual in the 26-year-old Haqparast, but still a good one, as though he’s unranked, he’s still compiled a 5-2 record in the UFC so far and is coming off back-to-back wins.
Hooker vs. Haqparast joins a UFC 266 card that’s set to be headlined by a featherweight title fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Brian Ortega, while in the co-main event women’s flyweight champ Valentina Shevchenko goes up against Lauren Murphy, and not forgetting the big clash of veterans on the main card between the returning Nick Diaz and Robbie Lawler.
