'The Hangman' achieved a huge victory for his home crowd in one of the best non-title combat, main events in the UFC history that took place just over five years ago.
Long before the recent revival of Dan Hooker, De Nieuw -Zeelander was an emerging competition in the lightweight division.
Hooker's one-sided loss for Edson Barboza had stopped his four-fog profit, but 'The Hangman' bounced back by beating James Vick and Al Iiaquinta in 2019.
Hooker has overcome a huge adversity in the Octagon and that is exactly what he had to do in his first main event in 2020.
For the first time since 2017, the Octagon landed in Auckland, where the favorite of the home crowd would accept a dangerous striker that he had previously called on his face in an interview after the fight.
Dan Hooker and Paul Felder have set up an immediate classic in Auckland
Both Dan Hooker and Paul Felder wanted to break through in the top layer of the lightweight rankings by coming from Auckland with the victory.
There was tension between them in the structure of the fight and which eventually produced an absolute war in five rounds where both men left part of themselves in the octhoek.
In a collision between the #6 and #7-ranged contenders, Hooker started the fight well and he won the first round on all three score cards after he started swelling of Felder's right eye with chopping his legs.
With 'The Hangman' who continued to play his opponent from the outside, the emphasis was on brighter to close the gap, but he continued to do damage while he did.
'The Irish Dragon' began to achieve more success around the halfway between point, despite the punishment he had already taken, convincingly won the fourth round on all three cards after he quickly got out of the blocks.
In the fifth round, with the fight that could possibly be in the balance, both men had success in a closely disputed last stanza who ended with Hooker with the help of his wrestling to arrange the last minute.
Hooker was lifted his hand through a controversial split decision that won 48-47, despite the fact that 12 of the 17 media members saw the fight in favor of Felder.
In an emotional interview after the fight, Felder spoke about retirement after his gloves and although he returned later that year to board and be confronted with Rafael Dos Anjos in the short term, this was really the swan song of the current UFC- commentator.
“I knew it was close. I feel that I hurt him a lot in the fight, but he got the Takedowns, smart. He took me pretty well and it might be for me. Man, I got a four -year -old at home who misses me every time I go away, but congratulations on then.
“I knew that this is exactly where I was when I came here to New -Zeeland. I p – this guy and when you are p – from a talented man like then, he will bring it to you and the man, that was a nice brother. That was nice, five rounds are added. '
23 February will always be reminded in the MMA history for this great main event conflict with the next iconic photo of the two opponents in the hospital together regularly appear on social media.
Dan Hooker and Paul Felder think about their war that is now five years old
In a recent episode of Michael Bisping's Believe You Me Podcast, Paul Felder thinks and then Hooker that the fight was five years in the past.
“It is time for us to have a beer together, my friend, it's time we had a beer together,” Hooker said. “It's a long time ago.”
Felder noticed how both men tried to prove at the time that they deserved to be in the title photo in which 'The Hangman' is currently currently.
The previous time-out did not succeed for him, despite his victory over Felder with hooker who loses back to back fighting to Dustin Poirier and Michael Chandler, but he now believes that he is in a much better position to be with the best camps.
“Back. I am back honey, it is coming for a long time. It is a lot of hard work that is involved and a lot of ups, many downs, but yes, it's just, you just have the feeling that you now feel more comfortable now.”
Hooker will unfortunately have to wait a little longer to continue his winning series after he withdrew from his upcoming collision with Justin Gaethje on UFC 313 due to an injury.
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