Frankly, Hooker is good on the mic, and his most-recent offering was more of the promo-cutting same.
“That was a good one,” Hooker said. “Say it with your chest. Say it with some mana, you know what I mean? They’re fighting words. I’m not shy. They’re fighting words. What am I supposed to say to the guy? Like, ‘Oh, hey, you want to come down to a tickle party?’ No. I’m going to say, ‘I’m going to tear your head off,’ because what do you want? You want the guy to be threatened so much that he wants to defend himself, he wants to fight back. It’s genuine. It’s nothing fake about what I’m saying. If you duck me, you are a coward. If someone said that to me, I’m fighting him. That’s it (laughs). I’m just doing what would work on me.”
Fighting For Something More
Hooker has come into his own voice when it comes to speaking on topics outside of mixed martial arts, namely the hoops he had to jump through as an athlete in New Zealand. He admits it feels a little weird because he just feels like a normal guy living in the suburbs, but his impact came to the fore when politicians bring up some of the comments he and his City Kickboxing teammates have made regarding the difficulties they’ve had traveling and training.
He added that part of New Zealander culture is to “not complain,” but with the spotlight on him during UFC 266, he was just “merely just explaining (the) situation,” and more athletes in the country have followed suit.
Those issues are why Hooker and other City Kickboxing fighters have said they plan to all move to the United States in the near future. Hooker’s teammates Kai Kara-France and Brad Riddell are lined up for December fights but don’t have vouchers to return to the country, and Israel Adesanya posted about the impending move on social media. They all have expressed just wanting to make the most of their time in the sport, and another part of that is wanting to honor their teammates who’ve passed away recently. Adesanya dedicated his most-recent title defense at UFC 263 to Fau Vake, who was murdered earlier in the year, and Hooker did the same after his victory over Haqparast. At their gym in Auckland, they have murals of their fallen teammates and hope to honor them with their work.