Dan Hooker was beaten by Benoit Saint Denis at UFC 325 in Sydney. Photo / AFP
Looking to protect his ranking in the UFC lightweight division, Dan Hooker’s defences were split.
Standing in the centre of the octagon at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena as ring announcer Bruce Buffer read the result, Hooker sported a cut on his left eyebrow courtesy of Benoit Saint Denis’ elbows, with his freshly beached hair now blood-dyed.
The 35-year-old Kiwi fell to a second-round TKO loss to his French rival in the UFC 325 co-main event, with Saint Denis likely to claim Hooker’s spot at No 6 in the division when the rankings are updated this week.
Hooker had his moments against Saint Denis, who came into the bout ranked at No 8 and riding a three-fight winning streak, but there might be one moment he’d like back.
Hooker was having plenty of success at range, particularly with his front kick to the body. While Saint Denis has knockouts on his record, it was no surprise to see him try to get the fight to the floor, as it was expected he would have an advantage in the grappling.
Hooker defended the takedowns well in the first round, using the threat of a guillotine choke well to create space, and sent Saint Denis back to his corner after the first five minutes with swelling starting to show below the Frenchman’s eyes.
But after stopping an attempted takedown early in the second round, Hooker appeared to try to score one of his own.
Instead, Saint Denis ended up on top of Hooker and got to work with four minutes left on the clock.
He went straight to it with elbows, before setting up an arm triangle choke - the same submission Hooker tapped out to in his last fight.
While Saint Denis’ squeeze looked tight, Hooker refused to submit. Instead, Saint Denis went back to his strikes, forcing referee Herb Dean to step in with fewer than 20 seconds to go in the round.
“He was very good with distance management, so I had to put the old BSD seek-and-destroy stuff in the plan and, you know what? I’m going to be champion with this s*** because nobody is going to do this three times for five minutes with me,” Saint Denis said in his post-fight interview.
“At the beginning, with his experience, he had the perfect game plan with good distance management. I did s*** in the first two minutes of the fight and was thinking too much. Then in my mind I was like ‘okay, old BSD stuff with all the new techniques I have in my arsenal now and he’s just going to break’.”
The loss was Hooker’s second in a row – both by stoppage – and likely sees him slip into gatekeeper territory in the division at the lower end of the top 10.
It was a different story for his teammate from Auckland’s City Kickboxing gym, Cameron Rowston, with the rising middleweight prospect securing another finish for his record.
Rowston beat veteran Cody Brundage by second-round TKO, outclassing and overpowering the American who was mostly looking to land big shots on the counter.
The win saw Rowston maintain his 100% finish record, after a first-round win in his UFC debut in Perth last year. In 14 professional MMA wins, Rowston has 13 finishes.
Following the win, the Australian put the rest of the division on notice.
“Middleweights watching at home. If you identify as a male, you’re 185 pounds and you sign up to fight me here in Australia, there are three things you’ve got to do,” he said in his post-fight interview.
“One, pack your passport. Two, no outside fruit or vegetables, and three, choose how you want to lose, or I’ll choose for you.”
Earlier in the event, Lawrence Lui became the first New Zealander to be signed to the UFC’s bantamweight division when he won his Road To UFC final by split decision.
In the main event, Australian Alexander Volkanovski beat Brazilian Diego Lopes by unanimous decision to retain the featherweight championship.
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.