It seemed for a brief moment in time, that Dan Hooker may not get his US Visa to compete at the UFC 266. However he has secured it in the nick of time, and he says that it would not have happened without his fans on MMA Twitter.
Things have never been harder, when it comes to getting into other countries, and Hooker experienced that firsthand. He was slated to compete at UFC 266, taking on Nasrat Haqparast, but that was in jeopardy when he was unable to secure his US Visa.
After reaching out to his social media for help, it seems that his prayers were finally answered. He posted to Twitter to reveal that he had finally gotten the visa, and is able to compete at UFC 266, this weekend.
Squeaky wheel gets the oil. 😂 pic.twitter.com/Kr3A4Z63El
— Dan Hangman Hooker (@danthehangman) September 20, 2021
Dan Hooker Thanks MMA Twitter
With this coming on such short notice, Dan Hooker is lucky to have gotten his US Visa. However he says that it is all thanks to the outpouring of support from fans on Twitter.
Speaking with Submission Radio, the lightweight contender said that the UFC was somewhat powerless to expedite the process. So he has no choice but to believe that it was the fans who kept reaching out to the New Zealand embassy to get it done.
“For (the embassy) to get back to me and say that it wasn’t going to go ahead, I was just like, I’m not a man to die quietly. You really picked the wrong guy. So I got on social media, and I was like ‘Let’s make some noise. I’ve done everything in my power, that I possibly can, I need MMA Twitter, I need your guy’s support behind me,’ and they did. People just absolutely bombarded the New Zealand – US Consulate,” Hooker said.
“There was absolutely no acknowledgement that that was the reason why, but people were sending me screenshots of them just going through the full thing. They submitted full applications with the name being ‘Give Dan Hooker his visa.’ Without a shadow of a doubt, one hundred percent everyone getting on their case got it… The UFC, they were powerless as well to oil the wheels as they usually do, but yeah, it was the people one hundred percent.”
Police Kicked Him Out Of The Gym
While it is a relief that Dan Hooker was able to get his visa, this was not the end of the struggles that he has faced. In fact, this whole training camp has been a hectic mess of a situation.
As he eluded to earlier, the lockdowns in New Zealand have made his training situation more complicated, So on top of flying into the US just a day before weigh-ins, while cutting weight, he had to do most of his training camp in secret.
“They give you until midnight, since they announced the lockdown, and wherever you are at midnight, you’ve gotta stay there. So Eugene (Bareman) puts the call out, you know ‘Dan’s got his camp, some of the other guy’s got their camp, they need to get into the gym before midnight,’ which we all did. We were there for a couple of weeks, and… there was a reinterpretation of the rules,” Hooker said.
“Because it wasn’t our usual residence, we had to disband the camp. And like Eugene, I’m sure he could have fought that, but he wanted to do the right thing by New Zealand. He’s very supportive of New Zealand pursuing the elimination strategy, so he disbanded it. The police didn’t want it, we disbanded it, we moved off.
“And then I was trying to get out of the country to train overseas,” Hooker continued. “Obviously in the meantime, it was pretty difficult to just sit and wait on the couch. So we were doing the best we could for that time.”
That being said, Dan Hooker explained that while he was still looking for a fight, he had been doing some heavy training, making this less of a blow to his training camp. Time will tell how this will effect his performance, when he faces off against Nasrat Haqparast, at UFC 266 this weekend.
