Kiwi UFC lightweight contender Dan Hooker clearly isn't too bothered about narrowly missing out on a spot on one of the highly-publicised 'Fight Island' events.
On Saturday, 'The Hangman' will depart for Las Vegas, where he'll make his second headline appearance against Dustin Poirier at the UFC Fight Night on June 28.
The card is the last to be held in the US, before the promotion heads to Abu Dhabi's Yas Island for a series of events at the now considerably less-mysterious location.
Or as Hooker describes it - in completely geographically accurate fashion - 'Fight Peninsula'.
"It's not really what it was advertised as," Hooker tells Newshub. "But we'll let it slide."
Instead, the UFC Apex centre - the promotion's performance institute - will host Hooker's Sin City bout, where the crowd will consist of just a few judges, a handful of officials and a commentary team.
The competition is so eerily quiet that some fighters have openly confessed to taking advice from the announcing team's commentary at cageside.
Hooker admits it will be an adjustment, especially coming off February's five-round epic against Paul Felder at a raucous Spark Arena, but the situation also has definite benefits.
"Even in my first or second fight at the local ABA [Auckland Boxing Association], it's still 500 people in a room. That's still nothing in comparison to what's going over there.
"Comparing my last fight to this one will be apples and oranges - going from 10,000 of your countrymen in your hometown in a sold-out arena to just a handful of UFC staff.
"But I feel like it's going to be a lot less pressure on my shoulders, for certain."
Even less concerning are the smaller dimensions of the Octagon used at the Apex centre, which has seen the ratio of knockout and submission wins skyrocket during the three events staged there so far.
Most, including president Dana White, call it merely coincidence. Either way, Hooker is unfazed.
"I've fought in a cage so small that the bell rang between me and my opponent, and I didn't even take a step forward, we both just put our hands out and we touched gloves. That's how small the cage was."
Obviously, these are all relatively trivial details for the 30-year-old Aucklander, who has much bigger fish to fry - namely 'The Diamond' Poirier.
A former lightweight champion, Poirier boasts a decorated list of victims on his CV, including Gaethje, Eddie Alvarez, and Max Holloway, and represents an elevation to an elite tier of the division.
"He's obviously a very good boxer, very strong wrestler, good against the cage," Hooker assesses. "I think his most dangerous trait will be that he's been in a lot of five-rounders before, so he has that main-event experience under his belt.
"I definitely respect his skills, but when it comes down to technique, I just feel like I'm a bit sharper on the feet."
A win against the Louisiana native, who now sits two spots above Hooker in third on the divisional rankings, will put him at front of the queue to take on whoever emerges from the eventual title-unification fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaetjhe.
Hooker says his record speaks for itself. The Aucklander is riding a three-fight streak, with just one loss through his past eight contests.
"A win over Dustin Poirier and I have the next best resume," he insists. "I'm next in line.
"Tony [Ferguson] is coming off a loss. Conor [McGregor] is coming off a win over the 12th-ranked fighter in the division. So when we're comparing resumes, it's pretty hard to deny.
"If either of those two - Tony [Ferguson] or Conor [McGregor] - have a problem with my claim to the title, there's always a way we can sort that out."
With a freshly inked six-fight contract under his belt, Hooker seems primed to make his run at the strap and getting his hand raised over a fighter of Poirier's pedigree would be an undeniable statement of his championship credentials.
The razor-close nature of Hooker's split-decision win over Felder has had some questioning the legitimacy of his title claims and the Aucklander knows presicely how to shut those doubters up.
"There's always something to prove, but it's whoever gets the win gets the spoils, at the end of the day. It doesn't matter how it gets done.
"People remember wins and losses at the end of the day. Enough time passes by and I've been part of the sport for such a long time now that I know this is fact."
Join us for live updates of Hooker v Poirier from noon on Sunday, June 28.
