The main event of last night’s UFC on ESPN 12 saw Dustin Poirier (26-6 MMA, 18-5 UFC) defeating Dan Hooker (20-9 MMA, 10-5 UFC). In Fantastic UFC on ESPN 12, Poirier Outpunch Hooker.
The game saw the American fighter winning after a unanimous decision of the judges who had reportedly scored 48-46, 48-47, and 48-47 in his favor.
As per the reactions shared by many of the experts on the social network, this was perhaps one of the best fights recently, with both Poirier and Hooker giving their very best. The game saw both the guys being quite aggressive throughout the entire span of the contest and therefore as a result, there were 380 total strikes, which is the highest in the lightweight history of UFC.
The fight started with Hooker pressuring the rival, with him executing several combinations which in turn did hurt Poirier. The first and the second round seemed to be entirely his followed by all the judges scoring in his favor at those two parts of the event.
However, after taking some time off to find his mojo, the former interim titleholder from the USA started catching up with the swing and forced Hooker to retreat on various situations in the third. In the coming two rounds, Poirier used his prior experience to restrain Hooker’s bursts and surges, while calmly inflicting a lot of damage to the fighter from New Zealand.
However, there were quite a few times when Hooker showed his will and also the stubbornness by attacking and managed to cause problems. For him, this happened to be the first loss after having three victories against pretty respective names like James Vick, Al laquinta, and Paul Felder. However, amidst all the circumstances, no one sees this as a step back in his career. His excellent performance and the show that he had put up against Poirier would for sure secure him the spot in another great fight pretty soon.
Now, speaking of the Diamond, he is back following the loss to Khabib back in September last year. As of now, it seems that the surgery he had didn’t necessarily leave any trace and that Poirier’s condition is near to the highest possible level. Following only just one more win against a big name from this division, and people can once again expect him to appear in a title fight.
Thankfully, he has enough time for that because of the fight between Khabib and Gaethje, whom Poirier had defeated earlier. Now the game requires finding out who amongst the two is the lightweight champion, and once they are done with that, Poirier could once again hope to attack the belt one more time.
