Dan Hooker confirms Israel Adesanya was originally targeted to headline UFC 300: “I was not surprised at all”

Dan Hooker is confirming that former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya was originally targeted to headline UFC 300.

According to Hooker, Israel Adesanya was ready, willing and able to headline the historic UFC 300, but it was middleweight champion, Dricus Du Plessis who turned the offer down.

Adesanya (24-3 MMA) last fought in September of 2023 at UFC 293 and was defeated by Sean Strickland (28-6 MMA) who in the process became the new middleweight champion.

Strickland would go on to defend his title against Dricus Du Plessis (21-2 MMA) in January of this year at UFC 297. ‘Stillknocks’ would defeat Strickland by split decision to gain the middleweight crown.

‘The Hangman’ has some inside knowledge of what’s happening with Israel Adesanya as they train together at City Kickboxing in New Zealand.

Speaking with ‘Sky Sports’, Hooker outlined what went down concerning the headliner for UFC 300:

“It’s a good fight they scratched together. I want to know, I want Dana to come out and say that what had all gone on behind the scenes. Because as far as I knew, Israel was stepping up to fight in that 300 slot.”

Continuing, Hooker shared (h/t MMAJunkie):

“He’s (Adesanya) continued to stay in the gym and stay healthy and stay training very hard, so I would anticipate him getting another fight booked pretty soon.”

As far as Du Plessis turning down the UFC 300 main event, Hooker said:

“I feel like Dricus, that was going to be a big ask after the five rounds he had with Strickland, he took a lot of damage in that Strickland fight. And yeah, he turned the title fight down before. He was supposed to fight Israel Adesanya in Sydney when (Izzy) fought Strickland. But he had, like, a niggle, he had an injury, and he wasn’t prepared to take that risk.”

Concluding the 34 year old said:

“I was not surprised at all that he wasn’t prepared to rush back and take that risk for UFC 300. Can I criticize him for it? I can’t really, cuz it worked out in his favor the last time. He’s now the one walking around with the title. So can I criticize? ‘You should want to fight at UFC 300 with half a training camp!’ I can’t, I can’t criticize him.”

As we now know it will be a light heavyweight title bout between Alex Pereira (9-2 MMA) and Jamahal Hill (12-1 MMA) headlining UFC 300 on Saturday, April 13th at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada.

Do you agree with Hooker that UFC CEO Dana White should ‘come clean’ and let it be known that the Pereira vs. Hill fight was not a first choice headliner for UFC 300? Would you have preferred to see Israel Adesanya vs. Dricus Du Plessis as the main event?

Share your thoughts in the comment section PENN Nation!