Many fighters have detailed issues with cutting weight. Several videos have emerged showing the dark side of this major problem within the sport of MMA, causing fans and fighters to react strongly. 

But for all the physical issues cutting weight can cause fighters, UFC lightweight Dan Hooker feels he’s been held back in a different way. He spoke with the Top Turtle MMA Podcast on FloCombat ahead of his UFC 226 matchup vs. Gilbert Burns this Saturday, July 7, discussing why he feels so much better at lightweight than he did at featherweight and more. 

“I get to eat food and train at the same time,” Hooker joked. 

Although the amount he eats was cause for a couple laughs, the effects of that food were much more serious. 

“The dehydration, getting down to the weight, hindered my ability to think more than anything,” Hooker said. 

While he felt mostly fine physically, he believes the biggest detriment to his overall skill was that he couldn’t think to use what he knew he had. This is an especially big problem for someone who fights like he does. 

“As a fighter, that’s one of my biggest tools—my ability to think and react inside of the cage,” Hooker said.

Although that might be the case for him, he knows he is a special type of fighter when it comes to that. 

“I think it’s different for some fighters who fight more instinctually and aren’t thinkers much,” Hooker said. “For me, someone who is constantly thinking and assessing things, it took too much away from that.”

And that translated to losses and sloppy performances in the cage—something Hooker wasn’t proud of. 

“It wasn’t allowing me to do my skills justice,” he said.