Daniel Hooker is a professional Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) player and a kick-boxer from New Zealand. He is popularly known as Dan Hooker or The Hangman.
It is unknown how Dan the Hangman Hooker received his stage name.
Currently ranked at No. 4 in Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight, Hooker is juggling two jobs.
He is training fighters in his new gym in Auckland and, at the same time fighting the world’s best UFC lightweight fighters. Nevertheless, he enjoys both the same.
Trained by senior professional kick-boxers, The Hangman is also a co-owner of Challenger Sports Management, an organization for athlete management and marketing.
Besides the management company and his professional fighting career, the favored 30-year-old fighter is also one of the head coaches at City Kickboxing and the Combat Academy owner.
Let’s briefly look at the quick fact about this well-spoken MMA/UFC Fighter, Gym Owner, Head Coach, and Pod-caster.
Dan Hooker | Quick Facts
| Full Name | Daniel Preston Hooker |
| Birth Date | 13 February 1990 |
| Birth Place | Auckland, New Zealand |
| Nick Name | The Hangman, Hooker, Dan |
| Religion | Unknown |
| Nationality | New Zealander (Kiwi) |
| Ethnicity | White |
| Education | Unknown |
| Horoscope | Aquarius |
| Father’s Name | Unknown |
| Mother’s Name | Unknown |
| Siblings | Unknown |
| Age | 34 Years Old |
| Height | 6 feet (183 cm) |
| Weight | 71kg (156 lbs) |
| Hair Color | Honey Blonde |
| Eye Color | Grey |
| Body Measurement | Unknown |
| Figure | Athletic |
| Married | Yes |
| Wife | Isabella Hooker |
| Children | Daughter, Zoey Hooker |
| Profession | Mixed Martial Artist, Coach, Gym Owner, and Co-owner of Challengers Sports Management. |
| Stance | Orthodox |
| Salary | Estimated $100 thousand |
| Team | Tiger Muay Thai, City Kickboxing, and Saigon Sports Club |
| Trainer | Eugene Berman and Doug Viney |
| Active Since | 2009 – Present |
| Rank | #4 in the UFC Lightweight Rankings |
| Social Media | Instagram, Facebook, Twitter & Youtube |
| Last Update | April, 2024 |
Dan Hooker | Early Life, Family, and Education
Dan Hangman Hooker was born on 13 February 1990 as an Aquarius in Auckland, New Zealand.
People born under the zodiac Aquarius are known to be friendly but caring about privacy.
He believes in the importance of a family, as most Kiwis do, and continues to keep his family name high.
When his opponent Felder made an inappropriate joke about Daniel’s family name being “Hooker”.
He said, “I don’t know what the culture is like in America, maybe it’s a bit different, but where I’m from in New Zealand, especially in Maori culture, to insult someone’s family name is to insult the whole line.”
However, his parents’ information is still unavailable, and whether he has siblings is still a mystery.
As for his education, he certainly finished his graduation from New Zealand. However, the complete information about which University or school he went to is still unavailable.
Dan Hooker | Marriage and Kids
The New Zealander UFC fighter is married to his long term girlfriend, Isabella.
There is no news about when they got married, but presumably, the couple got married in 2016, from what we can see in Dan’s Instagram posts.
It was a beautiful wedding ceremony with close friends and family, held in Phuket, Thailand.
Details about Isabella Hooker is not available yet. However, according to Dan’s Instagram, we can figure out that Isabella is a yoga instructor and that the couple is happily married.
Hooker and Isabella welcomed a beautiful baby girl, Zoey Hooker, in November 2018.
The fighter dad shared a moving picture of him welcoming his daughter into the world.
Dan Hooker | Early Career
Daniel Hooker started his professional MMA career in 2009. Before joining the UFC, he fought in New Zealand and won by 6 points.
With a record of 9-1-3 in his kickboxing debut, Hooker won the King in the Ring Middleweight Kickboxing Championship and WKBF X-Rules Welterweight Championship.
Likewise, The Hangman played 13 games in his kickboxing career, out of which he won 9 matches.
Dan took part in the ICNZ Contender Series 1 No-Gi Submission Wrestling Tournament and beat Thomas Kwok and Bass Khou. His winning move was a Guillotine Choke.
However, Hooker lost to Pumau Campbell by a few points.
Furthermore, the professional MMA fighter competed in the New Zealand 2011 No-Gi Nationals under 77kg/170lbs division.
He won against Paul Faavaoga, and in the second round, he lost the fight to LJ Stevenson.
Similarly, Hooker gained weight and competed in the heavyweight fight as well. He weighed 86kg/189 lbs and won the second round against Mark Creedy by knockout.
Moreover, the UFC champion also competed in heavyweight kickboxing against Antz Nansen.
Since 2008, Dan Hooker is coaching MMA at City Kickboxing gym in Auckland, New Zealand as a head coach.
In addition to that, the former King in the Ring opened his gym, Combat Academy, in 2018, in Auckland. The gym has a full-sized ring and focuses on teaching mixed martial arts.
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Dan Hooker | Ultimate Fighting Championship Highlights
Hooker has fought 29 MMA matches as of June 2020, out of which he has won twenty fights and lost nine games. You can read below about his wins and losses.
UFC Wins
Although Hooker was already a professional MMA fighter and a kick-boxer, he made his first UFC debut on 28 June 2014 against Ian Entswide, another debut fighter.
Indeed, Dan Hooker won the fight by Technical Knock Out (TKO) in the first round.
Similarly, on 10 May 2015 at Fight Night 65, Dan won the fight against a face-off with Hatsu Hioki.
With Hooker’s combination move of head kick and punches, he became the first fighter to knock Hioki out in an MMA fight and received his Performance of the Night bonus for the first time.
Also…
Furthermore, Hooker fought and won against Yair Rodriguez on 3 October 2015 at UFC Fight Night 85. His winning move was a high-elbow mounted guillotine choke.
On 11 June 2017, he competed against Ross Pearson at Fight Night 110, and sure enough, Hooker won the fight via knockout in the second round. That fight earned Hooker his second performance bonus award.
Consequently, he won the match against Marc Diakiese in the third round by guillotine choke at Fight Night 219 on 30 December 2017.
Diakiese battled Dan Hooker on 30 December 2017 at UFC 219. He lost the bout via guillotine choke obedience in the third tread.
Similarly, at UFC 128 and UFC 226 in 2018, Hooker won both the matches by knockout against Jim Miller and Gilbert Burns.
Dan Hooker won the next three matches as well. On 20 July 2019 at UFC on ESPN, he won the fight against James Vick in the first round and earned his third Performance of the Night bonus.
Likewise, on 6 October 2019 at Fight Night 243, Hooker fought against Al LaQuinta and won a unanimous decision.
On 23 February 2020, Hooker received the Night award’s Fight after winning against Paul Felder by a controversial split decision.
UFC Losses
On 20 September 2014, in UFC Fight Night 52, Hooker lost the fight by unanimous decision against Maximo Blanco, a Venezualan professional.
Additionally, he lost the fight to Jason Knighton on 27 November 2016 at UFC Fight Night 101 because of a unanimous decision.
Likewise, on 15 December 2018 at UFC on Fox 31, Hooker was technically knocked out in the third round by Edson Barboza. It was the first time that Hooker had lost the game by strikes in MMA.
A short while ago, on 27 June 2020, he lost the fight against Dustin Poirier at UFC on ESPN. Nevertheless, he received the Fight of the Night award.
Not to mention, Hooker was severely injured in the match with Poirier and had to be hospitalized for a few days.
In an interview with NZME, Hooker said, “I got checked out of the hospital – everything’s all good, just a couple of stitches on the eye, but hey that’s the game we play.”
During his time in the hospital, Dan shared an adorably emotional picture of his daughter visiting him as there were restrictions on visiting due to the pandemic.
Dan Hooker | Height, Weight and Physical Appearance
Dan Hangman Hooker is one of the favored MMA/UFC fighters internationally. Because of his professional skills and good looks on top, he has many fans of all gender.
Hooker is 6 ft tall (183 cm), and as for his weight, it is 71 kgs (156 lbs). His leg reach is 42.5 inches.
To complement his good looks, he has Grey eyes and honey blonde hair with an athletic body.
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Dan Hooker, Israel Adesanya, and Woodley
Soon after, Tyron Woodley and Israel Adesanya got into a social media bout, training partner and friend Dan Hooker came to the Kiwi’s aid.
Adesanya and Woodley have been going at it for a while now.
The bout among the two initiated when Woodley—on Instagram—stated his purposes to move up a weight class.
The American wants to challenge ‘The Last Stylebender’ for the UFC middleweight championship in the prospect.
Also, Woodley declared flaws in Adesanya’s game, particularly during his fights with Kelvin Gastelum and Yoel Romero.
Israel speedily replied to Woodley by defying his last bout against Kamaru Usman. As anticipated, Tyron fired back.
Recently, Adesanya’s friend and teammate, Dan Hooker, extended his support to the champion. He responded to a video that was meant to troll Woodley’s rap skills.
Further
Tyron ensued replied with a tweet that referred to Hooker as a tramp.
Hooker then advised Woodley to get into comedy and guaranteed that it won’t worsen his career as a rapper.
Just when we thought that Woodley had the upper hand, ‘Hangman‘ fired off another tweet. Subsequently, Woodley countered with a strong reply.
The battle kept on steaming hot all around the social media. Soo, Woodley came up with a threat of grinding him up with the words in social media. After this, Hooker came up with a genuine apology.
After this tweet, the fight officially ended, and both of these were never seen battling this way.
Dan Hooker | Income and Net Worth
The 30-year-old Kiwi fighter is one of the most notable professional fighters in the world of MMA. The fights and matches are his primary source of income.
He has fought and won numerous fights, earned extra performance bonuses as well.
On average, a UFC fighter earns between $1.3 million to $2 million.
Likewise, Hooker has an estimated net worth of approximately $2 million as of June 2024.
Hooker owns a black ISUZU, which he might have modified a bit. It has his nickname “The Hangman” printed in giant white letters.
Although we do not know whether he lives in a huge mansion or a regular home, it is certainly big enough for his family, spacious rooms, and a big yard.
He is also the owner of a gym, a head coach, and even a co-owner of a sports management organization. By that, we might assume that aside from the matches, he has secondary sources of income.
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Dan Hooker | Awards and Achievements
Below, you can read about the awards and achievements of The Hangman list wise:
- Three times Performance of the Night won against Hatsu Hioki, Ross Person, and James Vick.
- Fight of the Night award, twice.
- Lightweight Championship and two successful title defenses in the Australian Fighting Championship.
- Won the New Zealand Lightweight Championship.
- King of the Ring award in Middleweight Kickboxing Champion and WKBF X-Rules Welterweight Champion. In New Zealand.
Dan Hooker | Social Media Presence
Instagram (@danhangman) 233k followers
Facebook (@danhangmanhooker) – 252k followers
Twitter (@danthehangman) – 76.4k followers
You can listen to Hooker’s podcasts on his Youtube channel, The Dan Hooker Podcast (7.5k subscribers)
Commonly Asked Questions
Who trained Dan Hooker?
Dan Hooker received his training from professional kick-boxers Eugene Bareman and Doug Viney.
What is Hooker’s current rank?
As of September 2020, the latest update, his #4 in the UFC lightweight rankings.
When is Hooker’s next fight?
Hooker faced recent three-time Bellator MMA lightweight winner and UFC newcomer Michael Chandler at UFC 257 on January 24, 2021. He lost the bout via specialized knockout in the first step.
After the fight, Hooker placed his gloves in the middle of the octagon; however, it is concealed whether he will formally retire or not.
What happened between Nate Diaz and Hooker?
The 2nd degree blackbelt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and one of the most prominent UFC fighters in the world complimented that Hooker should be the number one welterweight fighter.
Diaz had mentioned it after Hooker beat the No.1 welterweight contender Gilbert Burns.
Hooker has called out Diaz for a fight after the compliment, but nothing has been confirmed yet. It would be a heart-stirring match to see the two of them fight in the ring.
