Dan Hooker doesn't think Charles Oliveira is a top contender at lightweight

UFC lightweight Dan Hooker has commented on the lightweight division activity and made a statement saying, Charles Oliveira doesn’t belong at the top.

At UFC 256, the lightweight title picture got even more log-jammed when Charles Oliveira dominated Tony Ferguson en route to a unanimous decision victory. For most fans, the win was the coming-out party for Oliveira who had very quietly put together a seven-fight win streak with seven finishes. But not everyone was as impressed with Oliveira’s performance as others, namely, fellow lightweight contender Dan Hooker.

Dan Hooker on UFC 256

.@danthehangman is still not very impressed with Charles Oliveira after his win at #UFC256:
“My opinion is that Charles Oliveira is still a pussy.”
📺: https://t.co/8WkXOZxBXK pic.twitter.com/fqykqr9raT
— Submission Radio (@SubmissionRadio) December 16, 2020

Speaking with Submission Radio recently, Hooker talked about Oliveira’s victory over Ferguson and had an interesting interpretation of the fight.

“It’s pretty obvious to me what’s happened… (Tony)’s a crowd fighter, he draws energy from the crowd,” Hooker said. “Under those big moments, under the pressure, 10, 20, 30-thousand people there, you can’t tell me that doesn’t change the environment of the situation. And Charles Oliveira, to me, he’s a fighter that traditionally doesn’t do very well under the pressure of those big fights. You look at any big fight he’s had in his past, and he freezes, or he’ll crumble under the pressure of those big fights. So, to me, that’s what it was. Tony wasn’t awake. Tony didn’t look like he’d been riled up. And Charles Oliveira was in the zone, in his element, and freely doing his thing.”

Hooker knows a bit about what he speaks. In June, Hooker lost a five-round unanimous decision to Dustin Poirier in one of the best fights of the year. Afterward, Hooker said noted that the difference between having a crowd and not was more stark than he imagined, and having watched Ferguson’s performance at UFC 256, Hooker is convinced that made a huge difference.

“You can’t tell me that doesn’t change what you’re doing. Everyone is awesome at doing their day job, but it’s like if you had to do your day job with 20,000 people there, yelling, screaming, getting you hyped up. It’s just the whole – I’ve been through it, I’ve been through it before. I fought twice this year. Once in my hometown in front of a sold-out stadium of my countrymen, and then flying over to Las Vegas to the APEX where those two fought, and it’s dead, it’s quiet. I was the same. I like the crowds, I function well, and I love the pressure. I feel like it just builds. But, it’s the whole week. Open workouts, weigh-ins. When you got the crowds there, you can draw energy from it and it gets you going, or it makes fighters cramp up and freeze.

Hooker had been calling for a fight with Tony Ferguson, a fight that now seems unlikely to happen, and has previously made it known that he thinks Oliveira isn’t that impressive, an opinion he still holds.

“I’m only one man, I only have my opinion. My opinion is that Charles Oliveira is still a p*ssy,” Hooker said. “Nah, I’m just having a bit of a laugh. He’s just not – he’s a bit whatever to me. He didn’t do anything amazing. He just did some basic fundamental stuff to Tony Ferguson, and Tony Ferguson had no real answer for it. To me, he just hadn’t been drilling his fundamentals for a while, and it’s a game of improving your fundamentals and working on them. That’s just the way I saw it. It’s not like I was so impressed with the amazing stuff that Charles Oliveira was doing.”

Unfortunately, a fight between the two does not seem to be in the offing anytime soon. During the interview, Hooker revealed that he has accepted a fight for early next year but would not reveal against whom.

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