Dan Hooker now finds himself and in his career in an uncomfortable position after a UFC Fight Night 287 main event loss to Salahdine Parnasse.
Although Hooker (24-15 MMA, 14-11 UFC) seemingly did all the right things in preparation and was beaming with confidence all week, he was unable to spoil the debut of hyped newcomer Parnasse (24-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC) on Saturday at Accor Arena in Paris, and now he has lost a career-worst three consecutive fights.
Although each of those defeats have come to elite competition in Parnasse, Benoit Saint Denis and Arman Tsarukyan, it's hard to pull many other positives out of the equation from a competitive standpoint. At 36, this is where the writing on the wall starts to become apparent in terms of the overall career,
but it's hard to see a world where Hooker buys into the idea he's done.
If there's one giant positive to this experience, it's that Hooker said he was paid handsomely to take this fight on a new contract. He claims it was the best payday of his career, in fact, so unless the UFC cuts him from his contract, he will almost certainly try to maximize those paydays.
The question then, however, is would the UFC be willing to give him a more favorable matchup to get back on track, or is he locked into only getting the hardest fights because he's being paid at that tier. That's the catch-22 of his current situation.
It would be nice to see the promotion throw Hooker a bone. Not to say he should get an easier fight, but the loser of Renato Moicano vs. Brian Ortega at UFC 331 or the loser of King Green vs. Esteban Ribovics at UFC 332 would feel a lot more winnable than the hands he's been dealt lately without a dramatic drop-off in name value.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Sean Shelby's Shoes: What's next for Dan Hooker after UFC Paris loss?
