Dan Hooker isn’t necessarily expecting a barnburner against Benoit Saint Denis at UFC 325.
Hooker (24-13 MMA, 14-9 UFC) vs. Saint Denis (16-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) serves as Saturday’s co-headliner at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney (Paramount+), and on paper looks like a leading candidate for Fight of the Night.
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Although both lightweights possess the style to make it a fight to remember, Hooker thinks Saint Denis will tap into a more reserved game plan – despite having finished all his wins to this point.
“Smart money would say he’s going to try and take me down,” Hooker told MMA Junkie. “Fights are generally dictated by who can press who against the cage or who can stay out in the open. I obviously want to stay out in the open and keep it on my feet.
“He 100 percent wants to press me against the cage and get some control time and take the fight where he has the advantage. He’s a smart man. I don’t take him as a stupid man. I don’t think that he’s going to come all this way to stand in the pocket and swing punches with me. I don’t think that’s a very smart move to do, and I calculate him as a very smart man.”
Saint Denis showed off his wrestling to full effect when he stifled creative striker Mauricio Ruffy’s offence en route to a second-round submission at UFC Fight Night 258 in September. Hooker, meanwhile, is coming off a quick submission loss to Arman Tsarukyan at UFC Fight Night 265.
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UFC 325 marks a relatively quick turnaround for both fighters who most recently competed in November. Hooker may be the one fighting down the rankings, but said he appreciates Saint Denis stepping up for the opportunity.
“To be honest, thank him for coming all the way down here,” Hooker said. “I knew I’d have to fight down in the rankings, but to get a guy who’s ranked a couple of spots lower on a big win streak, coming off a big win, and to get him to travel to the other side of the world, it’s very difficult to get fighters to accept the challenge of that and to travel that far. He’s actually coming from the other side of the world.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Dan Hooker expectes Benoit Saint Denis to wrestle him at UFC 325
