"That just completely bemused me" - Dan Hooker on T.J. Dillashaw moving down a weight class to fight for the flyweight title

After his recent loss to Islam Makhachev at UFC 267, Dan Hooker has hinted at a move back down to featherweight. Hooker, who recently appeared in an episode of Pub Talk, stated how boxing champions in history have always gone up in weight class to look for challenges.

While discussing the prospect of Canelo Alvarez eventually going all the way up to heavyweight, Hooker suggested that moving down a weight class doesn't befit a great champion. To this point, he revealed that he was confused by T.J. Dillashaw's decision to go down a weight class after winning the bantamweight title in the UFC. Here's what Dan Hooker said:

"No great champion in boxing history ever went down. That's like when TJ won the bantamweight title and was like I'm going to go down and fight for the flyweight title, that just completely bemused me. Because I was like no great fighting champion in the history has ever won a bantamweight title and went like, 'You know what? I'm going to go down!' It doesn't prove a point. You go up. You are the champion and you are the best in the world at this weight class, you move up to the next weight class and you become the champion in that weight class. So, that confused me a lot. It is like TJ should have looked at boxing and seen that no one had ever done it."

You can watch Dan Hooker's full episode with Pub Talk below:

Alexander Volkanovski opens up on Dan Hooker moving down to featherweight

Sharing a short video on Twitter, Dan Hooker had teased a move back down to 145 pounds, where his City Kickboxing teammate Alexander Volkanovski is the champion.

Volkanovksi, who recently joined The AllStar's John Hyon Ko to discuss the state of the featherweight division, opened up about the possibility of crossing paths with Dan Hooker. Here's what he said:

"If we have to cross that path, we will. Obviously, we are teammates and we are going to be supporting each other and helping each other out in camps doing all that type of stuff. If we have to meet, we have to meet and you worry about it then. But that is not our goal. It’s not like, ‘Oh, sh*t, we need to start game-planning for each other.’ Not just yet. If it gets there, it gets there. If not, all good.”

Watch Alexander Volkanovski's full interview with The AllStar's John Hyon Ko below:

Dan Hooker made his UFC debut in 2014 as a featherweight and went 3-3 in the promotion before moving up to lightweight three years later. In his last four UFC fights as a lightweight, 'The Hangman' has gone 1-3.