Kiwi lightweight Dan Hooker has overcome a nightmare week of setbacks to score a dominant unanimous decision win against Nasrat Haqparast at UFC 266 in Las Vegas.
Both Hooker and his German opponent had issues securing their US visas, arriving just two days before their bout, with 'The Hangman' forced to go to the extreme - and near unprecedented - lengths of cutting weight during his flight from New Zealand.
But with the 'Sin City' crowd firmly in his corner, Hooker showed no evidence of his arduous fight build-up, putting on a clinical performance in a shutout against unranked Haqparast to snap his two-fight losing skid and send a clear message to the rest of the division where he's still a genuine title contender.
The judges scored the bout 30-27, 30-27 and 30-26 in Hooker's favour, including a 10-8 second-round on one of the cards.
According to the UFC's official stats, he scored 75 significant strikes to just 25 from Haqparast, as well as a trio of takedowns, as the Kiwi returned to his seldom-seen grappling game with excellent effect.
Afterwards, the classy Hooker immediately paid tribute to his opponent, whose visa issues last week were compounded by the death of his grandmother.
"There was a lot of challenges to get in here tonight, but nothing compared to what Nasrat faced," Hooker says. "It's incredible that he showed up.
"My journey was very easy compared to him."
Hooker controlled the contest from the outset, immediately claiming the centre of the Octagon and stallking Haqparast, who barely fired a shot in the first stanza, struggling to close the gap on the Kiwi's sizeable reach advantage.
In the second round, Hooker settled into his rhythm and methodically attacked Haqparast using a steady barrage of knees, implementing his grappling game to score a pair of takedowns, which he followed with effective ground and pound.
Realising he needed a finish to win, Haqparast emerged with an extra sense of desperation in the third and final round, but couldn't avoid Hooker's clutches, as the Kiwi scored a perfectly executed double-leg takedown and went back to the well with strikes from above to close out an emphatic victory.
The No.8-ranked fighter quickly refocused his sights towards the top of the lightweight division, laying down the the gauntlet to third-ranked Beneil Dariush.
"I heard Dariush is looking for a fight," Hooker, 31, shouted. "I'm your man, friend, if you want to go.
"You’re a coward if you duck me!"
In the card's main event, Hooker's City Kickboxing teammate Alexander Volkanovski defended his featherweight title for the second time, besting Brian Ortega in a jaw-dropping contest, which will go down as one of the division's all-time greatest.
During an action-packed third round, the Australian was nearly submitted twice by jiu-jitsu wizard Ortega, but after escaping the second of two chokes, delivered a hellacious beating to the American, who was saved by the horn.
Ortega's unreal toughness enabled him to go the distance in the five-round fight, but Volkanovski retained his title in a Fight of the Year candidate, earning scores of 49-46, 50-45, 50-44 on the judges' scorecards.
