Dan Hooker vs Dustin Poirier Preview
After a few months in the abyss, Aotearoa's UFC fighters are about to hit blast off on their 2020 ascension and when specifically referring to City Kickboxing, it's a blast off to establishing the Auckland gym/team as the best in the world. Dan Hooker is first up and will fight Dustin Poirier tomorrow in Las Vegas at the UFC's Apex facility, all of which is perfect for folks in Aotearoa as this UFC Fight Night will be live and free on ESPN.
Fight times are always tricky to estimate, but the main card gets underway at midday and Hooker could be fighting any time after 1:30pm-ish. Most likely after 2pm.
At this stage, Hooker is a UFC veteran having made his debut in Auckland way back in June 2014. Those early years were a wee bit rough as Hooker started with a win and settled into a six-fight stretch of win, loss, win, loss, win and a loss in the featherweight division before moving up a weight class to fight in the lightweight division. That's a clear marker in Hooker's career as his first fight at lightweight was in June 2017 and Hooker grabbed a nifty win over Ross Pearson (brutal knee - hold on to that thought).
Since moving to lightweight, Hooker is 7-1 with the loss coming in yucky fashion via Edson Barboza's two-and-a-half-round onslaught. Prior to that loss, Hooker won four in a row and he then followed the loss with three wins in a row, which has seen him steadily climb the ladder of the lightweight division to the point where he now fights Poirier who last fought Khabib Nurmagomedov for the title.
Low key, this fight will help or hinder my case for CKB being the best team in the world. Poirier is with American Top Team and ATT is one of the biggest teams in the USA, along with teams such as American Kickboxing Academy and Trevor Wittman's crew. This isn't merely a battle between two lightweight contenders, this fight will provide greater information to help us assess where CKB ranks among the UFC's elite teams.
I'm rather optimistic about Hooker's chances in this fight, even though Poirier is more favoured and has greater experience at the top of the lightweight division. Hooker has a wide variety of tools that will be useful in this fight and as always with CKB, we have to appreciate the efforts from the coaches who will have a crystal-clear game plan to break Poirier down.
CKB is known for their striking, not so much their grappling (wrestling or jiu-jitsu). That's understandable considering that Aotearoa's fighting history is entrenched in striking and unlike other countries like USA where wrestling is entrenched in high school and college sport, or Brazil where jiu-jitsu is ingrained in their culture, Aotearoa lacks such connection to either grappling sport. Heck, take this further with Russia who have Sambo roots that run deep in their sporting culture.
What CKB does have however are wrestling coaches (Andrei Paulet, Frank Hickman) and a jiu-jistu system run through City BJJ and Atos Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This primarily forms a defensive base that ensures that CKB's UFC fighters can strike with supreme confidence as they know that they have the tools to deal with takedown attempts from their opponent; Israel Adesanya fought plenty of fighters with a wrestling base on his road through the UFC's middleweight division.
Poirier doesn't mind a takedown and as Poirier definitely ain't looking to deal with Nurmagomedov on the mat, I'll slide back to the fight prior vs Max Holloway. Holloway has a similar body shape to Hooker and Poirier attempted eight takedowns vs Holloway, while lighting him up with his striking. Poirier averages 1.55 takedowns per 15mins (a round) and I suspect Poirier will throw in some takedowns to mix his attacks up - which Hooker should be able to deal with.
Hooker has not been taken to the mat in his last five fights and had a crucial takedown himself late in the win over Paul Felder. Hooker's takedown is 78 percent, meaning that Hooker snuffs 78 percent of his opponent's takedown attempts and to prove the point about CKB having more than adequate takedown defence, here are the CKB's UFC fights takedown defence numbers...
Israel Adesanya: 86%.
Alexander Volkanovski: 72%.
Brad Riddell: 57%.
Kai Kara-France: 90%.
Shane Young: 64%.
All of that has me confident that Hooker will be able to deal with Poirier's takedown threats, which feels especially interesting considering that however Poirier wants to do the stand up striking thing; Hooker's well poised to dominate. Poirier has shown a patient style against noted heavy-hitters Justin Gaethje and Eddie Alvarez, while the fight against Holloway saw Poirier be aggressive against a fighter who was moving up a weight division.
If Poirier wants to be patient and pick his moments - Hooker has the range and skills to keep Poirier on the outside while doing damage.
If Poirier wants to move forward aggressively - Hooker can set traps and has all the striking to pop an opponent moving forward.
Hooker has the longest reach of Poirier's recent opponents...
Hooker - 75 (inches).
Khabib - 70".
Alvarez - 69".
Gaethje - 70".
Pettis - 72".
That will obviously be useful for Hooker, especially when combined with Hooker's kicking which has been prominent in his recent fights and is another tool to control distance. Hooker is especially busy with his kicks in the first round and this is a double-whammy tactic where Hooker can alter what his opponent is doing by constantly kicking their front leg as well as managing the distance between him and his opponent.
Hooker grabbed a first round KO vs James Vick three fights back and prior to the KO, Hooker had landed 9 of 14 kicks.
Next fight vs Al Iaquinta and Hooker landed 13 of 14 kicks in the first round, before 6 of 7 in the second round and 4 of 8 in the third.
Then the win over Felder saw Hooker land 15 of 19 kicks, which then tapered off (8 of 9, 7 of 8, 5 of 5, 5 of 6) over the next four rounds.
That's Hooker's last three fights and he has not only had more kicks than his opponent in the first round, his last two fights feature that decrease in kicks in the rest of the fight. This could be an asset against Poirier as Hooker can do damage while controlling distance and sussing out Poirier's plan in the opening round.
With that, watch out for minor kick fakes from Hooker where he twists his hips as if he were about to kick. Along with genuine kicks, these fakes can spark a reaction that is soon followed by hands, elbows or knees and it flows back to establishing the kicking threat in the first round.
Let’s get into some examples of the striking skills from Hooker - which Poirier could find himself in the middle of when he tries to move forward.
Round one vs Felder and Hooker gets a kick off. As you’ll see, this kick isn’t just about doing damage to Felder’s lead leg, with the kick Hooker gauges the range and is outside of Felder’s punch before unleashing a left jab…
Similar story below as it’s all about range. This time Hooker catches a kick from Felder and Hooker is outside of Felder’s punching range, then Hooker lands another left jab…
Hooker isn’t just throwing a left jab out alone. The first example has it coming after a low kick, then the second example has Hooker throwing his left jab with awkward timing - Felder’s back leg is still raised from his punch attempt. For Hooker (and CKB) their striking is multi-dimensional and Hooker can roll through his tools and tricks to set up whatever he wants.
Chuck the knees into the mix as well. Surely most people have seen this KO of Pearson before…
Hooker threw this knee vs Felder as well - imagine Poirier moving forward in a flurry of punches, straight into Hooker’s knee…
And I’ll leave this here as well, because it’s just beautiful…
With a range advantage, immense accuracy and variety in strikes, good-enough takedown defence and what I expect to be a effective game plan from Eugene Bareman and the CKB coaches, I reckon Hooker can get the job done vs Poirier. If so, it will come as a total package of Hooker's talents and CKB's wizardry which will only amplify the excellence of CKB.
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Peace and love.