Dan Hooker on Why Australian Crowds Are the Best in the World: “They just want to sink some beers”
UFC veteran Dan Hooker has explained why he loves Australian crowds ahead of UFC 325 in Sydney this weekend.
At UFC 325, Dan Hooker will go head to head with Benoit Saint Denis. The expectation from many is that BSD will get the job done and continue to march towards a title shot, but given what we know about ‘Hangman’, we can’t imagine he’s going to go down without a fight.
Dan Hooker is one of the last true scrappers that the UFC has, and he is well aware of that. He soaks in the atmosphere, he wants go get into wars, and he puts everything he’s got out there for the fans to see. Crucially, of course, the fans are always a big part of that, and he will look to utilize that as much as he possibly can when he locks horns with Saint Denis.
In a recent interview, Dan Hooker spoke particularly about Australian crowds and why they are so popular with fighters.
Dan Hooker on Australian crowds
“It’s just different, bro. It’s just different ’cause we’re like, I speak the same language as Australian crowds, you know. They just want to sink some beers. They just want to pay their ticket money and come down and just scream some obscene [__]. That’s what it’s for. The boys can just get together, make loud noises, have a joke, muck around with each other, and watch someone get knocked out.
“The UFC staff even said it to me, they’re like, ‘You’re a crowd favorite down here.’ I was like, ’Cause they just can relate to you.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m just a bogan.’ They’re like, ‘Yeah, and you’re our target audience. You’re a cashed‑up bogan, and our target fan base is a cashed‑up bogan.’ I got enough money to gamble, I got enough money to go to the UFC, I got enough money to go out, drink too many beers. That’s why I’m in the prime target audience of the UFC.”
Will the crowd be enough to get Dan over the finish line? We’ll have to wait and see.
