New Zealand lightweight Daniel Hooker is set to face Japanese veteran Hatsu Hioki on the UFC Fight Night 65 card scheduled to take place in Adelaide, South Australia on May 10.
News of the match-up was revealed via the New Zealand Herald and later confirmed by the promotion.
It will be the third fight in the UFC for Hooker (11-5, UFC 1-1) who turned 25 years old earlier this month. The Strikeforce Auckland trained fighter is coming off a September decision loss to Maximo Blanco and had made a succesful debut in the UFC back in June last year where he stopped Ian Entwistle with devastating elbows in the first-round.
Hioki (27-8-2, UFC 3-4) will bring a wealth of experience however is having trouble finding the form in the UFC that once had him regarded as one of the best featherweights in the world. The 31 year-old had won only once in his last four outings with that being a decision win over Ivan Menjivar. In his last outing back in June on the UFC Auckland card, Hioki was submitted for the first time in his career by Charles Oliveira.
UFC Fight Night 65 will be headlined by a heavyweight clash between Sydney based Mark Hunt who looks to rebound from his recent loss to Fabricio Werdum when he meets Stipe Miocic.
Fight Card:
- Mark Hunt vs Stipe Miocic
- Brad Tavares vs Robert Whittaker
- Sean O’Connell vs Anthony Perosh
- Jake Matthews vs James Vick
- Seohee Ham vs Bec Rawlings
- Dylan Andrews vs Brad Scott
- Alex Chambers vs Kailin Curran
- Vik Grujic vs Brendan O’Reilly
- Daniel Hooker vs Hatsu Hioki
