Following his last victory over Mateusz Gamrot at UFC 305, Dan Hooker admitted that he was ready to fight anyone. He hoped to get the “hardest road to the title” with a possible matchup against Jalin Turner, Arman Tsarukyan, Islam Makhachev, or even a rematch against Gamrot. We would have gotten to witness a battle between Hooker and Justin Gaethje at UFC 313, but the Kiwi broke his hand and had to undergo surgery to fix it. But now, he has recovered and is ready to face his next opponent, with Charles Oliveira in his crosshairs.
Hooker has been targeting Oliveira for a long while now, and it all began with Hooker replacing Oliveira to fight Michael Chandler at UFC 257. While talking to the media on UFC 257 pre-fight press conference, Hooker announced, “The only reason I’m here is because everyone ahead of me turned the fight down. They didn’t want to take the risk, they didn’t want to risk their spot. They come up with a bunch of excuses. Old ‘Charlie Olives’ saying he can’t make the weight. Dana [White], you believe ‘Charlie Olives’ can’t make the weight? I’ve got broomsticks thicker than that boy. I’m here. I’m taking the risk. That means I reap the reward.” Now, ‘The Hangman’ sent out yet another callout for ‘Charlie Olives’ through an X post.
“Someone wake up Charlie Olives and tell him we fighting in November,” Hooker wrote on X. According to him, he’s a pretty good matchup for the Brazilian because his game involves defending wrestlers. In his battle against Gamrot, the Kiwi showcased elite takedown defense (even though he was controlled in the early bout). He exerted enough pressure towards the end of the second round that Gamrot gave up wrestling altogether, ultimately letting Hooker win via a split decision.
Now, ‘The Hangman’ expects to make a similar showcase in a bout against ‘Do Bronx’. But the Brazilian isn’t the only fighter he wants to go up against. Remember the recent friction between Hooker and Arman Tsarukyan on X? Hooker previously trashed Tsarukyan for pulling out of UFC 311, and later, branded him as “big mouth, glass hands.”
In response, when UFC 317 was making waves, ‘Akhalkalakets’ took aim at Hooker through an X post and wrote, “On a side note, Dan Hooker is still a b—-. Just thought that needed to be said.” Of course, the Kiwi didn’t back down and stated that the Armenian was a #1 contender that no one cared about. And this time, he used Tsarukyan’s X post as a template and stated, “On a side note Armans a bitch and he can get it too, daddy’s home.”
Someone wake up Charlie Olives and tell him we fighting in November.
— Dan Hangman Hooker (@danthehangman) July 25, 2025
The rivalry between ‘The Hangman’ and ‘Akhalkalakets’ has been burning bright for a while now. But do you know what Dan Hooker said about Tsarukyan after his win at UFC 305?
Dan Hooker gives a stern callout targeting Arman Tsarukyan
In a conversation with The MacLife following his latest win, Dan Hooker stated that the UFC’s big guns apparently wanted him to fight Oliveira. He branded the matchup as a “good fight.” However, drama erupted when he began discussing Tsarukyan as a potential opponent. He said, “He’s a p—. He’s been talking s— for years. He’s just a p—. There’s nothing more to it. It’s like the duality of fighting. There’s no one more I hate in the world than these other guys in the division, but there’s no one else I respect more in the world than the other guys. There’s no one more similar to me, but we’re all vying for the same thing.”
And the timeline that Hooker hoped to fight at was sometime before February 2026. He reasoned, “I’d like to get one more in this year. I’ve got another baby on the way, due in February. So I’d like to knock one out before then. There’s another card [rumored for Sydney in February], but it’s a couple days before my wife’s due, so you’re cutting it a bit fine. I’m not going to stress the missus out like that. She deals with enough. She’s married to me, for f—’s sake. So if we can knock another one out this year, that will be incredible and then fight for the title next year.”
Now, the question that remains is this – Will the UFC let Hooker fight Oliveira first? Or will he fight Tsarukyan and settle the scores in November? Let us know what you think of the Kiwi’s callout on X.
The post Dan Hooker Reveals Tentative Timeline for Charles Oliveira Fight as Arman Tsarukyan Catches Strays appeared first on EssentiallySports.
