UFC Fight Night 204 takeaways: Is Dan Hooker's best behind him?

What mattered most at UFC Fight Night 204 at The 02 in London? Here are a few post-fight musings …

1. An event for the ages

I’ve lost track of how many UFC events I’ve covered after nearly a decade as part of the MMA media. What I can do, however, is count on one hand the amount of fights cards that truly stick with me as extremely memorable.

UFC Fight Night 204 has without question joined the short list, and it might be right near the top. That isn’t recency bias, either.

What more could anyone have asked for from this event? Honestly? Nine finishes out of 12 fights, a crowd that was absolutely lit from the walkouts for the first fight, and some results that had legitimate meaning across multiple weight classes.

Who knows when we’ll get another card where UFC president Dana White opts to issue bonuses to every single person who won via stoppage. It might be a long time until something meets this standard.

Credit to the fighters for delivering an epic showcase and the fans for bringing an energy that’s been dearly missed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Take a bow, all. ????????????

Related 2. Tom Aspinall is a threat

We’ve seen Alexander Volkov lose a number of times in UFC and MMA competition. However, no one has dismantled him quite like Tom Aspinall did. Definitely not in the octagon, anyway.

Aspinall (12-2 MMA, 5-0 UFC) was more than comfortable striking on the feet with Volkov (34-10 MMA, 8-4 UFC), then when the action hit the mat he worked his magic en route to locking in a straight armbar for the finish in just over two minutes. It was a strong display of skill, and a performance that puts Aspinall in the elite of the elite when it comes to the UFC heavyweight division.

It’s been clear since Aspinall’s first few UFC fights that he’s very skilled. He was vocal about his desire to take a measured approach to climbing the rankings, though, and didn’t want to put the cart before the horse in terms of becoming a top contender.

Aspinall’s confidence shifted in the days and weeks prior to his encounter with Volkov, and it was obvious he was ready to take that next leap. His performance signified such, and at this stage there’s no turning back for him.

That’s not to say Aspinall’s next fight is going to be for the title or anything. UFC boss White hinted he wants to see at least one more from Aspinall before giving that serious consideration. But expect this man to be in the conversation for that title shot soon, and at just 28, expect him to be a focus of the title picture for some time.

Related 3. Have we seen Dan Hooker's best?

Let’s start this section by praising Arnold Allen. That guy is very good, and has been for a while now. Inactivity has been the only thing holding Allen back, but when he got paired with a fan favorite in Dan Hooker, it was his moment to shine, and he absolutely did just that with a completely insane slugfest that led to a first-round TKO in his favor.

Allen (18-1 MMA, 9-0 UFC) is a true title contender at featherweight, and with a nine-fight winning streak, he should be no more than one more win from a title shot. “Almighty” has a lot of good going for him, and he appears to be an A-level talent. So respect for that, and the future is exciting.

Now onto the man he beat in Hooker (21-12 MMA, 11-8 UFC), who is now 1-4 in his past five fights. All but one of those defeats have come by stoppage less than three minutes into the first round, which is not an ideal trajectory for the 32-year-old.

Of course, if you examine the record closely, you’ll see Hooker’s losses in recent years have come exclusively to the very best in the game. But he’s taken a metric ton of damage in some lengthier fights with the likes of Dustin Poirier and Edson Barboza, to the point where he’s toughness has become one of the primary talking points when he receives praise from his peers. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but most fighters would tell you they don’t want that to be there most defining trait.

After milking just about everything he could out of his run toward lightweight title contention, Hooker opted to move back to featherweight for the first time since 2016 in hopes of putting another fresh coat of paint on his career. Instead, he probably added more questions around his future than there’s ever been before.

At this point, it’s clear Hooker is unlikely to put the necessary wins together to fight for a UFC title. He’s still a recognizable name with a strong fanbase, and if he wants to keep fighting there will certainly be a place for him under the UFC banner, as well as a litany of available matchups.

It would be nice to see Hooker get a fight where he’s an odds-on favorite, though, to see how he could really hold up at this stage of his career. His lone win in the past two years against Nasrat Haqparast fit that description and Hooker looked great in that fight, so as long as he’s cautious with the fights he takes going forward, it doesn’t feel like we’ve seen Hooker’s last win in the UFC.

I’m sure he would be disappointed to read that’s the standard we’re setting at this stage of his career, but it’s the unfortunate reality.

Related 4. More answers needed on Paddy Pimblett

The Paddy Pimblett experience thus far in the UFC has been a fun one. His personality and fighting style are difficult to turn your head away from, but the Scouser has some obvious flaws that are going to be dangerous to his long-term success as he tries to climb the ranks at lightweight, which is arguably the deepest division in the UFC.

It’s hard to be too critical of Pimblett’s (18-3 MMA, 2-0 UFC) octagon tenure thus far. He’s earned both of his UFC wins by first-round stoppage after he submitted Kazula Vargas in this most recent outing, but within his performances have been some troubling moments. Especially if you’re a supporter who really thinks he’s got that title potential.

It seems misguided to sit here and tell a fighter who is committed to entertainment to taper things down. However, that might be whaat I’m doing right here. Being a little less risk-averse and more focused on striking and wrestling defense would go a long way for Pimblett and help him reach new heights in his career.

That may still not be enough to take Pimblett to the very top, but it’ll certainly boost his chances to get there.

Related 5. Paul Craig does it again

Paul Craig is the magic man of the UFC light heavyweight division, and he proved it against with a slick finish of Nikita Krylov.

We shouldn’t even be surprised by Craig (16-4-1 MMA, 8-4-1 UFC) at this point. He’s done it so many times that no one should be shocked. But to see once again getting battered in a fight, only to turn the tide back his favor and get a finish, is truly unreal.

Craig has a 100 percent career finishing rate, which is a remarkable statistic to maintain given how many fights he has and how long he’s been in the UFC.

It’s hard to know what Craig’s ceiling in the sport is at this point. Would I favor him in a championship bout? Probably not. However, if you put him in there, could we honestly say he doesn’t have a chance to get it done given his track record?

Related 6. Muhammad Mokaev is LEGIT!

Muhammad Mokaev lived up to the hype in every way possible in his UFC debut when he utterly destroyed Cody Durden in a mere 58 seconds courtesy of a flying knee strike that transitioned right into a fight-ending guillotine choke.

There was a ton of talk about Mokaev (7-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) coming into the event. After a 23-0 run as an amateur, he brought a six-fight professional undefeated streak into his octagon debut. And he couldn’t have given a much better account of himself.

At just 21, Mokaev has vocalized his desire to break Jon Jones’ record for youngest champion in UFC history. Jones’ UFC first light heavyweight title win, coincidentally, happened exactly 11 years ago to the day of Mokaev’s UFC debut in London.

We’ve seen a lot of fighters express a similar ambition. From Maycee Barber to Edmen Shahbazyan. It’s never worked out, though, but Mokaev seems like the could be the one to possibly break it. He’s massively benefitted by the fact he’s in a relatively thin flyweight division, where the belt has changed hands a number of times in recent years.

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