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Hooker previously announced a fight with Oliveira before admitting that he was just fooling around when “do Bronx” dismissed the report. “The Hangman” instead went on to fight Mateusz Gamrot at UFC 305 which went down in Perth, Australia, last weekend. A +250 underdog going into the fight, Hooker eked out a split-decision win in his “Fight of the Night” war with the Pole.
"We got the hand raised, not bad for an off night,” Hooker recently told The Mac Life. “I feel like I had an off night, timing wasn't really there, and I said that the fight’s going to play out one or two ways; It's either I pick him off from distance and he can't cover that ground or I get taken down and we scramble and I just have to get up and pressure him and kind of wear through him. I feel like it was the second of the two options, it was more of a worst-case scenario type of fight.”
Hooker subsequently ran into UFC executive Hunter Campbell at the fighter hotel lobby and discussed future plans. Hooker yet again hinted that Oliveira is his next likely opponent, although he notes that his options are wide open right now. Hooker also claims to have asked for the No.1 contender Arman Tsarukyan in a bid to take the toughest route to the title.
“He goes, ‘Who do you want to fight next?’ and I go, ‘I’ll smash any of the dogs.’ I said, ‘Give me every last one of the dogs!’ My manager Ash was there as well and he’s just like ‘How about I do the matchmaking brother?’… I said, ‘I’ll do it for free.’ Ash just goes, ‘Who woh woh.’
“Yeah, they want Charles. It’s a good fight but I mean there’s heaps of cool s—t I could do. The lay of the land is pretty crazy and it’s such a wild sport as well, we’ll see how it plays out… I couldn’t care less, all of them bro, even Arman bro. I said to Hunter that I’d like to fight Arman because screw it, we’ll go the toughest route to the title we possibly can — Turner, Gamrot, Arman, Islam – I just don’t care brother.”
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