Before he takes his seat at the City Kickboxing reception area - its unofficial video conference backdrop - Kiwi UFC lightweight Dan Hooker seems to forget an item off his shopping list and quickly excuses himself.
"Just have to bang out 10 burpees," Hooker clarifies.
As it turns out, Hooker and his fellow residents/training partners in the second edition of the CKB bubble are simply playing a game of 'buffalo', where any use of the right-hand cops an instant punishment - a mild form of entertainment to spice up their predicament.
After last week's return to COVID-19 Alert Level 4, Hooker had to hastily pack his bags to join coach Eugene Bareman and a cast of dedicated teammates helping him prepare for his return to the Octagon against Nasrat Haqparast (13-3) at UFC 266 in Las Vegas on September 26 (NZ time).
"We got the heads up that New Zealand was going into lockdown, so Eugene put the word out to get to the gym by midnight if you wanted to or were free to help me out with my camp," he recounts.
"We were lucky that over a dozen guys showed up at the gym, and were prepared to put the work in and sacrifice time away from your families to help us.
"We're living here at the gym - staying upstairs, training downstairs - and I'm just thankful that there's a number of teammates that have made the sacrifice to get in the gym and help us prepare."
The duration of their stay will be dictated by Auckland alert levels, and Hooker and his young family are prepared to stay put at the gym for as long as they need to ensure he completes his eight-week fight camp, even if that means bunking up until he leaves for the US on September 19.
"We're a week in now and it's quite cool," he says. "I feel like it's being at school camp again.
"We're just keeping busy, but it is quite fun and the training has been great. You don't have to sit in Auckland traffic to get to the gym, you kind of just roll downstairs.
"It's just a 20-second movement away, so it's been really good."
As you'd expect, planning fights and your life around the ever-changing complexities of the coronavirus pandemic is a constant challenge.
After learning a valuable lesson from his trip to the US to fight Michael Chandler in January - when he was forced to trot the globe for two months, until an MIQ spot became available - Hooker booked a voucher back in May, hoping he could get a fight in June.
While that fight date didn't eventuate, he at least now has a prized voucher for October, which allows a parched Hooker a chance to quench his competitive thirst and bank a paycheque.
Hooker was conscious of avoiding a similar predicament to teammate and UFC world champion Israel Adesanya, whose highly anticipated title rematch against Robert Whittaker - pencilled in for Madison Square Garden on November 8 - can't proceed, due to a lack of available MIQ spots for him and his team.
Fortunately, Hooker's longtime coach Bareman also secured an MIQ voucher earlier this year, so he'll be in his corner on fight night. They'll be joined by wrestling ace Frank Hickman and City Kickboxing teammate Genah Fabian, who recently contested a Professional Fighting League's lightweight semi-finals last week.
That's why the UFC No.8-ranked lightweight - has campaigned relentlessly for his next opponent, and was willing to settle for the unranked and relatively unheralded Haqparast - a 26-year-old striker coming off two unanimous decision wins.
After UFC matchmakers were unable to arrange Hooker a ranked fighter for his target date, the Germany-based Afghan slid into the Aucklander's DMs at the opportune time.
"The UFC wanted me to fight another ranked guy," says 'The Hangman'. "UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby called me and said he'd tried every one in the top 15, and they're either injured, booked or washing their hair, and they don't want to get out there and fight.
"I said 'I need to fight, I want to fight and I will take absolutely anyone'.
"It was actually an Instagram message. [Haqparast] said 'I'll take the fight, let's get it done'.
"There was one guy that stepped up to the plate and I accepted the only guy that wanted to fight me. That's the situation we're in here, that's what you've got to do.
"Instead of sitting on my arse and waiting for an opportunity to be spoon-fed, I went out and made an opportunity for myself."
At face value, a bout with a fighter of Haqparast's experience and pedigree carries plenty of risks and relatively minimal reward.
But it also speaks to Hooker's desperation to wash the bad taste of consecutive losses out of his mouth and re-establish himself in the division's title-contending pecking order.
He believes rejecting such a challenge would go against the very fabric of his ethos, and his deserved and well-proven reputation as one of the most game combatants across the entire promotion, whose confidence remains unwavering, despite recent setbacks.
"To not take the fight because it's risky and I might lose is really against my character. That shows I'm not confident in my ability and I don't think I'm the best fighter in the world.
"In my heart, I feel like I'm the best lightweight fighter walking the face of the planet. This is a situation I've been in before, and I know I can pick myself back up and right the ship, and turn things around.
"It's other people that doubt you and try to pass their doubt on to you. I'm extremely confident in my preparation for this match-up, and where I'm at mentally and physically.
"I'm confident I can turn things around and make my way back towards the title."
As difficult as they've been to swallow, self-professed "sore loser" Hooker says accepting back-to-back defeats - particularly his first-round KO to Chandler - has allowed him to rechannel any negativity into upskilling, rather than waste energy by pointing his finger.
"What's sped the whole improvement process up, and allowed me to get back in the gym and train is taking full responsibility for the result of the last fight," Hooker says. "I just took it on the chin, I just took full responsibility for that.
"I feel like I haven't changed. I've stayed true to my coaches, I've stayed true to my team, I've added things.
"It's nobody else's fault I lost that fight except my own, I put my hand up. I lost that fight.
"With the help of the team and coaches, we'll right the ship and turn this bad boy around."
Adding further impetus to next month's bout is the memory of friend and teammate Fau Vake.
In May, the 25-year-old was fatally wounded by an allegedly unprovoked assault in Auckland, which rocked both the combat sports and wider community.
Hooker has been vocal with his disgust at the sentencing of Vake's attackers, and venting his pent-up anger and outrage is another huge reason why he's so eager to return to combat.
"That's a difficult situation to process and that's definitely increased my hunger to get back out there, taking nothing for granted," he admits.
"It's definitely fuel to the fire. I'm upset about that situation, I'm angry about that situation and the way that I deal with those kinds of emotions, the way I deal with being angry and upset is that I train my ass off, and I go out there and I compete, and I fight someone within that Octagon.
"So I would've taken a fight with anyone, just because I can direct those negative emotions towards my opponent."
The set of circumstances combined certainly don't bode well for Haqparast's chances at the T-Mobile Arena next month.
Join us on September 26 for live updates of the Hooker v Haqparast fight at UFC 266
