Dan Hooker believes 'the myth' of Islam Makhachev and Team Khabib 'is bigger than the man'

Over his 11 years in the UFC, Dan Hooker has battled it out with some of the toughest fighters the lightweight division offers. A warrior through and through, "The Hangman" is currently climbing his way toward his first UFC title shot, and if he reaches the mountain's peak, he'll find himself staring at a rematch with a former foe: UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.

Makhachev, Uncrowned's No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world, has reached historic territory after a fourth successful title defense over Renato Moicano at UFC 311. Like his predecessor, all-time great Khabib Nurmagomedov, Makhachev has been unstoppable on his UFC run. But Hooker, having fallen victim to the champion's 15-fight streak, believes he knows a secret to the team's success — which PFL lightweight champ Usman Nurmagomedov may have accidentally exposed after a tough win over Paul Hughes this past Saturday.

"The myth is bigger than the man," Hooker explained Monday on Uncrowned's "The Ariel Helwani Show." "I feel like a mistake has been made. I feel like Usman made a mistake when he got on the microphone, and he admitted that he was — when have you ever seen one of the Dagestani boys get on the microphone and say that they were tired, they got hurt, they got pushed to the absolute breaking point? We've seen them in tough fights before, but we've never seen one of them get on the microphone and admit it. I think there was an error.

"All he had to do was do what the others do. Do what the myth that Khabib built and created, and that Islam and guys like Khamzat [Chimaev] were able to carry on. All he had to do was get on the microphone and say, 'Smash. I'll smash anyone. I'll smash anyone.' Put the microphone down and walk off. That's all that Khamzat has to say. That's all Islam has to say — is just shut up, keep it short, keep it simple and say you smash, you smash everyone. And then everyone would have forgotten that Usman and Paul Hughes had a close fight. Enough time passes by, Usman is still undefeated, this big, crazy, scary Russian dude, but he humanized himself. And that's the thing that [causes] guys who have been in there with Islam [to fail] — you fall for the myth, and you're not fighting the man."

Hooker's encounter with Makhachev in 2021 was rough, resulting in a first-round submission loss via kimura. However the circumstances weren't ideal, as Hooker traveled to Abu Dhabi on short notice to replace Rafael dos Anjos.

Despite that loss, Hooker equates Makhachev and his team's aura to that of any dominant champion — meaning, once that aura is broken, there's no going back.

"That's with any great champion for like a long time," Hooker said. "We're in the sport of monkey see, monkey do. We see long-reigning champions and then we see them get clipped, or we see them get dropped, and we see them be humanized. And you see that the myth shatters, and you see you take that myth away. Once you see a fighter get knocked out, you're like, 'Oh, well, if he knocked him out, I can knock him out,' and it becomes [as if] you're just fighting the man. But once you have to fight the man and the myth, it becomes very difficult, and that team has done an incredible job of protecting that myth and keeping themselves with very impressive records and not looking compromised and safe, and fighting in the style where they don't get dropped and they don't get cut and they don't get hurt.

"Time is the devil of any fighter. If you tell me what fighter can't be beat, it's time. That's why Khabib did it perfectly. He went on this incredible run and then dipped out and left with that myth completely intact, and he was able to pass that myth onto his teammate. That's what the team was planning, was, then Islam reigns until — he's obviously done an incredible job of carrying on that myth, of shutting up, just saying, 'Smash.' He was going to hand it to Usman when [Usman] finished his [PFL] contract out, and then he was going to come over and continue that kind of myth in the lightweight division, but [Usman] made the mistake of humanizing himself."

The theory is interesting coming from Hooker, considering how close he is to a rematch with Makhachev. Hooker said he's drawn inspiration from Hughes' performance as he rides a three-fight win streak into his next bout against former BMF champion Justin Gaethje in UFC 313's five-round co-main event on March 8 in Las Vegas.

Hooker, 34, said he was pushing for the matchup behind the scenes since December, and he eventually found out through Gaethje's YouTube channel, of all places. Now the New Zealander is ready to create more violence — even if he's grown to really like "The Highlight" as a person.

"At the end of the day, it's just a huge test for yourself. But, man, I'm a fan of Justin Gaethje," Hooker said. "I'll watch him. I've met him at UFC Sydney — we were both guest fighters, and so we were on the bus together as guest fighters. I had my wife there, my daughter, Zoe, and we're talking to each other. He's talking to my wife. Zoe's mucking around with him, he's playing with her. And they were on stage, and we obviously had 10 different fans go, 'You guys, fight each other, fight each other,' like we were going to do it then and there on the stage.

"I just seen him playing with my kid and being cordial with my wife, so this fight is not about talking. I'm expecting no disrespect from Justin Gaethje, and there'll be none heading that way. But inside the cage, absolute killers.

"I respect him for taking this fight. It's a dangerous fight. I feel like there's a lot of tough fights out there, but there's a lot more low-risk fights or potentially less dangerous fights [for Gaethje than this]."