Dan Hooker suffered his third consecutive loss on Saturday, falling to Salahdine Parnasse in the main event of UFC Paris. Following the defeat, former UFC champion and Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier questioned whether Hooker has become too comfortable with his current position in the lightweight division.
Hooker had previously described himself as a gatekeeper for the UFC lightweight top 10, a role Cormier believes can be dangerous for a fighter who should still be focused on climbing the rankings.
“When people generally hear that they're a gatekeeper or put in that position, they're mad,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “They're upset, and they fight that with all that they can. Dan Hooker seemed to be embracing that and said, 'There've been a couple losses, and then moving your way down the rankings, I'm more than happy to play the role that I'm in right now, and the role that I'm in right now is gatekeeping the top 10 of the UFC's lightweight division.' Me personally, I think there's too much acceptance, too much comfort in that.”
Cormier pointed to Kevin Holland as an example of a fighter who refuses to accept the idea of being a gatekeeper, regardless of his opponent or position in the rankings.
“We have guys that are willing to fight anybody, anytime. Kevin Holland comes to mind. Kevin Holland never says or never will accept that he's a gatekeeper. He will always fight to win, and he will always fight anybody,” Cormier said.
However, Cormier emphasized that accepting difficult matchups should not mean accepting a downward trajectory in the rankings.
“But just because you fight anybody doesn't mean you almost have to accept that if they beat you, they're just going to go forward and you just continue to tumble,” he said. “Your intention should always be to stop the tumble, to stop the losses, to stop the suffering.”
For Cormier, the mental impact of repeated defeats makes it particularly important for a fighter to avoid becoming comfortable with losing.
“It's suffering. Losing hurts in any way. You cannot accept that,” Cormier said. “When you hear a fighter do that, it just isn't good because you do that before the fight, and then the fight goes in the way that it did. That's not good. That's really, really not good for Dan Hooker.”
Hooker entered UFC Paris looking to snap a two-fight losing streak but was unable to halt his slide against Parnasse. The latest defeat leaves questions about what comes next for the veteran lightweight as he looks to rebound from three straight losses.
“So I'm very interested to see what happens with him going forward,” Cormier said.
