Dustin Poirier defeated Dan Hooker via unanimous decision last night at the UFC on ESPN 12. It was one of the best fights in this decade, and the fans who had the opportunity to follow it from home had a lot to see.
A Clash of the Year
Five tough rounds took place at the UFC Apex facility in Las Vegas, and in all five, we saw a tremendous effort by both fighters.
Poirier won via unanimous decision, with all three judges, Eric Colon, Derek Cleary, and Sal D’Amato scoring in his favor, 48-46, 48-47 and 48-47. Per several experts and MMA legends, this is without any competition the best fight of the year with both guys delivering top-notch performances.
Hooker started the bout pretty furiously, and he had an initiative in the opening two rounds, delivering several massive hits to Poirier’s body, but didn’t have the power to take down the former lightweight interim manager.
On the other side, there was no ring rust with the American who was enduring all the attacks and absorbing all the hits pretty easily. As time went by, he was starting to be more and more aggressive, and since the third round, he began taking over the momentum in the octagon.
“I started getting in my range and countering off his lazy shots… I was stealing the rounds with shots like that, but I can do better.”
Both Poirier and Hooker were severy injured, and bleeding all over the place, but that didn’t affect them for one second. They kept going after one another, but it was visible that Poirier has more strength and that he dictates things about the situation in the octagon.
Stats and Facts
This was the match with the highest number of total strikes in the UFC lightweight history, with 390 of them – Hooker 182, Poirier 208, while significant strikes counted 155-153 for the winner.
It’s something rarely seen, and we have to tip our hat to both guys, who were relentless.
For Poirier, this was the 26th win in his career, along with 6 losses. Many had doubts in his condition following the surgery and a defat against Khabib Nurmagomedov, but the Diamond proved them all wrong.
That failure is the only one in the previous seven events, and among those triumphs, he took down Anthony Pettis, Eddie Alvares, Max Holloway, and Justin Gaethje. All of them were champions (Gaethje interim).
Meanwhile, Hooker was one of the fastest rising stars in the UFC. He would lose to Edson Barboza but bounce bask with wins against James Vicks, Al Iaquinta, and Paul Felder. The fighter from New Zealand also has a win over Gilbert Burns, and even though he didn’t win this one, Hooker is most definitely among the top lightweights.
With a little more experience in situations like these, he is going to be one of the toughest rivals for any name from this division.
We are yet to see what the future holds for both Poirier and Hooker, but one thing is certain. They will be back in a big show pretty soon.
