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The Washington native has gone 3-3 inside the Octagon since he made his debut back in 2019, earning wins over Daniel Teymur, Peter Barrett, and Felipe Colares. Throughout that time period, Hooper feels like he has grown as a fighter and has been able to transfer that into his fights.
“I feel a bit more thought out, just more mature,” Hooper said. “I feel like my brain is more developed, higher Fight IQ and all that. I’ve learned how to train. I’ve learned how to break down fights. I used to not want to watch my opponents at all, it was too much anxiety for me. But now I’ve learned how to do that objectively and watch the guys, break down their tendencies and just become a more well-rounded fighter.”
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During his interview with UFC.com, Hooper expressed that another reason he wanted to change weight classes was so that he could be more defensive on the feet.
He knows his abilities on the mat outrank his striking abilities at the moment, but he still wants to have that in his tool belt if he ever were to need it. With five of his 11 wins coming by submission, Hooper wants to stick to what got him to the big leagues and that’s his jiu-jitsu and grappling. He’ll have the opportunity to showcase that once again this weekend against Fiore.
“He’s obviously from a great camp, trains with high-level guys all the time,” Hooper said. “Training is a lot different than fighting. It’s a lot easier to train with high-level guys in the gym when there’s nothing at stake. On top of that, I just feel like I have a hard pace to keep up with and I have a really awkward style of grappling. My key to winning a lot of fights is just being weird and awkward like I am and grappling that way.”