“Topuria did nothing incredibly” vs. Volkanovski

Dan Hooker believes that he has hampered Alexander Volkanovsky’s performance against Ilia Topria.

After five title defense, Volkanovski (26-4 MMA, 13-3 UFC) lost his featherweight title to Topuria in February 2024 with a knockout at UFC 298.

Hookers are associated with the impact that allows for quick turnarounds on performance.

“It feels like he’s looking back too quickly from the Islamic battle with Mahachev,” Hooker told Sky Sports in New Zealand. “I don’t think Ilia Topria did anything incredible. I feel like he just fought (too early). I was there. I fought Paul Felder, I fought Dustin Poirier, and I ran into the battle of Michael Chandler.

“The body can receive so many punishments before it takes time to fully retrieve. Especially when you’re fighting these five-round battles, you’ll need to do a fair amount of stretching and it takes time to recover from five-round battles. For example, he needed a little more time between these battles to fully recover his body.”

Man and still champion, I can’t wait to be there. ”

With Topuria abandoning its featherweight title, Volkanovski will be fighting the free belt Diego Lopez (26-6 MMA, 5-1 UFC) from Miami’s Kaseya Center on April 12th from the UFC 314 main event (ESPN+ Pay-per-view, ESPN+ Pay-per-view, ESPN/Disney+, ESPN+) with the free belt of the UFC 314.

Hooker is there to support his city’s kickboxing teammate.

“Yeah, I’m going,” Hooker said. “I’m sure Israel (Adesanya) is doing it. We’re just going across the street and clearly support Alexander Volkanovsky. What is that?

“It’s going to be a fight, and I can’t wait to sit on the slide of the cage and soak it. Not only is it overcoming the toughest time of his career, and not just on the other side of it, raise that title again so that he can still stand up and prove.

For more information about the card, see the MMA Junkie Event Hub at UFC 314.