Hooker’s exploits are under the microscope in this installment of The Film Room.
Hooker is longtime training partners with Israel Adesanya, and the similarities in their styles and fighting philosophies are prominent. Their games are built around footwork and the ability to use their length to set the pace and range of the fight. The major difference is that Hooker moves around more and is constantly circling the cage to create angles for his left hand. He will circle to his right and step forward with his lead leg to take an outside angle and set up the left. Hooker will also occasionally stop in his tracks while circling to his right, hoping the opponent continues to follow, which allows him to take an inside angle to set up the jab or a reaching left straight. We saw in Iaquinta’s last fight with Donald Cerrone that he struggles with fighters who will work from the outside and not play into his aggressive style. Hooker is smart enough to not get aggressive to a point that allows Iaquinta to counter. If Iaquinta did not work on closing distance against long fighters, then he could be in for the same fate he suffered in the fight with Cerrone.
In Hooker’s most recent fight with James Vick, the City Kickboxing standout landed a beautiful shifting left hook for his 10th knockout victory. Hooker usually stands southpaw, but he started the combo in an orthodox stance, faked an overhand right while switching to a southpaw stance and landed a left hook immediately after doing so. This is a technique upon which former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley has built his career and one that nearly every Team Alpha Male fighter uses at some point.
Hooker also uses his footwork on the defensive side and has become one of the best evasive fighters in the division. Outside of his UFC debut and his most recent fight with Edson Barboza, Hooker has only absorbed 240 significant strikes in 10 fights. To put that into perspective, he ate 126 significant strikes from Barboza in one bout. Although his ability to evade strikes with his footwork was exposed against Barboza, most opponents have a difficult time touching him. Iaquinta is the type of fighter who will plod forward with simple combos hoping the opponent will come forward, at which point he can step back and counter. This does not bode well for him against a footwork master like Hooker, so Iaquinta will need to get creative with his pressure if he wants to trap his counterpart.
The intercepting knee should be a staple of any distance fighter’s offense, and Hooker has some of the best knees in the game. Since he is almost always the taller and longer fighter, these knees have a shorter distance to travel and work well against aggressive opponents. Hooker relies on setting the range of the fight and is often flustered with aggression, but these knees are the perfect weapons to dissuade aggressive fighters while keeping the fight at his range. Iaquinta does not attack on angles often, so these knees up the middle should work well against him.
Since Hooker is known for his striking, his grappling is often understated. Hooker leaned on his grappling a lot early in his career, and half of his first 10 wins came via submission. These days, he chooses to keep it on the feet, but we know he has the skills on the ground to hold his own or get back to his feet. We saw him get dominated on the ground early on, but he has been favorably matched with strikers for most of his career, so no one knows how he will look against an elite grappler.
Hooker often overextends his left straight and leaves his hips wide open, but only a few opponents have managed to exploit this weakness. Maximo Blanco dominated hooker on the ground for three straight rounds, and Jason Knight routinely ducked under his left hand and landed four takedowns, which ultimately won him the fight. Similar to Adesanya, Hooker is exceptional at getting back to his feet. However, he has yet to be paired with a serious grappler in a division full of them, so it is only a matter of time before we see someone test him on the ground.