From Teenage Prospect to Hometown Fighter: Chase Hooper’s Full-Circle Moment

All right.

Here with Chase Hooper fighting in, uh, pretty much your backyard.

Do you like fighting at home, or would you prefer, is there too many distractions, too many friends asking for tickets?

Uh, I've had a couple of people asking for tickets.

Um, I just tell them, hey, I only get 4.

you can buy tickets though.

Uh, they gave us a link to begin with, but, uh, this will be my first time fighting at home in like.

I think 8 or 9 years, so it's pretty much since, uh, since contender Series I've been on the road for every single fight since, um, so I, yeah, it's, it's been a long time.

Uh, I think it would have been a lot more pressure earlier into my UFC career, uh, but now I feel very like at home with the company and everything, so it's like very, uh, it's, it's exciting to be able to fight at home and, and, uh, again get that extra crowd energy and, and, uh.

I was at the event last year when they came back to Seattle for the first time and it was insane.

Like the fans were were crazy, um, a lot of, you know, cool people out there.

So looking forward to being on the other side of that, I guess.

Yeah, I mean, we pretty much watch you grow up in the UFC, right?

Obviously you're on the path to maybe fight for a title someday, but do you feel like you missed anything like growing up or like stuff that you couldn't, couldn't do that your friends were doing because you were, you're fighting?

Uh, nothing that mattered, I guess from, from here.

It's, it's one of those things I was like kind of more of like a nerdy kid growing up anyways, like I would just kind of.

Yeah, go, go to school, do my homework, and then go train, that type of thing.

So I really didn't, uh, I didn't go to any parties or like there was, yeah, definitely plenty of times where people would be like, oh hey, you wanna hang out or do this and be like, Oh, I can't.

I gotta train, um, which at this, at the time probably didn't make a ton of sense, uh, but yeah, obviously it's, it's worked out now, and, uh, I'm pretty content with my decision.

You became a father since you joined the UFC.

How did, did that change you all as a fighter, do you think?

No, I, I think, uh, Michael Bisping asked me that in one of the fighter meetings and I told him I was like, I don't really think that, uh, you know, having a kid to fight for is gonna give me any more motivation than I need.

Like when there's a guy like right across the ring from me, like trying his hardest to hurt you, like, he's getting paid extra to hurt you more.

So it's like, there's already plenty of incentive for me to win these fights, um.

So, you know, it's just, honestly, it, it adds more.

It's definitely made my schedule like outside of training a lot busier, but uh it's been fun.

It's been fun.

She's with you in the training room a lot though, right?

Yeah, um, we'll let her run out of the mats.

I'm sure that's good for her immune system.

Um, yeah, I mean it's gonna happen regardless, so it's like we just, yeah, bring her to the gym whenever, um, obviously keep her away when When we got to get, get down to business, but, uh, yeah, it's, it's nice.

The White House card, Justin Gichi in the main event, they're gonna unify the lightweight title.

What, uh, what's your overall reaction to that card and the matchmaking because obviously Justin has a tall task going in there and he's, he is the American fighting in the main event.

Yeah, I, I, I think it's one of those things where, uh, They didn't really have a great matchup for having the US guy win and obviously it's a title fight, so you can only do so much as trying to position stuff like that, um, but I would have much rather seen Iliyah and Islam, like just for the fact that I don't, I don't like seeing Iliya just murdering all the legends, which again, I get the irony of me saying that, but um.

Yeah, knocking out Volk, knocking out Max Holloway, knocking out Oliveira.

Um, I don't need to see him do it a 4th time, you know, it's, it's kind of one of those things where I'll probably just be more sad at watching that and then I'll just turn it off after if, if that happens, so .

I'm rooting for Justin though.

Sorry.

No, no, no, you're good.

I mean, a fight is a fight and everybody counted Justin out against Patty, right?

I mean, he was a huge underdog going into that fight and he was, he proved that he still got it.

I mean, obviously Illy is a different beat.

If he goes out there, it could be the greatest moment in UFC history, right?

Yeah, and that would be really like the, the, the fairy tale ending for Justin Gauche.

Like this is probably his last title shot of his career like.

Has been such a fun fighter the whole time.

He's fought for a couple titles, um, kind of come up short.

I think he had an interim, if I believe, um, but yeah, it's, it's one of those things where I'd love to see him win.

Like he's a great guy, um, and yeah, I'd love to see him succeed, and, and, uh, that win would be great.

Um, I'm rooting for him for sure.

Lots of talk about the BMF fight.

Did you get a chance to watch it?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I, I think people would be complaining about it less if he had like snaked up that sub right in the first.

Um, but I understand because it's, it's such an arbitrary title anyways, where you can be like, oh, let's just make fun fights and, uh, Then we can make it 5 rounds, we can give somebody a belt, whatever.

Uh, it's, it's definitely a lot harder when it's like, oh, this guy's just gonna control your back for, you know, 23 out of 25 minutes.

Uh.

Yeah, I mean, I, I kind of thought that going into the fight.

I was like, we haven't seen Max have to grapple against anybody in a while.

And Oliveira, I knew was going to be bigger, but uh Yeah, I mean, not the most fan-friendly BMF title fight, but, uh, Oliveira is a fun fighter.

I, I can't blame him for like, oh, let me take, uh, Max Holloway to the area where I'm probably significantly better rather than just stand up and, and bang it out with him.

So I get it from that perspective, but it's obviously not as fan friendly.

I mean, I think the narrative would be different if it didn't have that BMF title attached to it, right?

Yeah, if, if it was just the fight, if that main event in something like, uh, I, I think that should be more than a fight night, but I don't know, they keep trying to do titles for main events of like the pay per view ones, um, former pay per view ones, the number of events, whatever.

But Yeah, I, I think that would have been a much different context if it was just a fight overall.

People would be talking about how amazing of a performance I was, you know, maybe not again the most exciting, but such a one-way, you know, domination rather than like, oh, why didn't he get a finish?

Um, but the fans are fickle and I can only do so much to please him.

Last one for me, another guy, home state guy, Michael Chiesa fighting on this card, his retirement fight.

He, you know, that he says he's like getting better, but he's retiring because he doesn't.

He wants to do other things, you know, what, what do you make of, um, a guy like that on a 3-fight win streak deciding to hang it up?

Yeah, I mean, he's what, he, I think he's 38.

Yeah, I was gonna say that, um.

Yeah, I, I mean, why not?

Like, he's got such a long career anyways, like he's got so much more time in the company than most people get, and he's got the commentary stuff going on like.

Don't, uh, you know, don't destroy your brain for nothing.

I mean, Mike fights pretty.

Uh, pretty safe as far as like, you know, brain health goes, um, like he's not just out there swinging the whole time.

Um, but yeah, I, I can completely understand.

Like, I'm sure his body is killing him at 38 of, you know, having been in UFC for so long and had so many fights with the company.

Um, you're definitely, even just from the training, like you're gonna get a lot of, you know, nagging things that are just gonna probably never go away.

So I understand, like, get out while you can, like that's kind of the goal of the sport is to like, Get in, make some money, get out before it destroys you.

You don't want to be, you know, in the BJ Penn or the Tony Ferguson, like a guy that stayed a little too long.

Um, I mean, that's my goal, obviously.

I don't want to be the one of those examples.

I guess one follow up on that, if that is your goal to get in and get out, like, do you, obviously, your Lance is in front of you this week.

You can't, you have to focus on him, but have you thought about what is next after that?

Cause you've been pretty patient and with your matchmaking and choosing opponents, like, is, is the title your ultimate goal or is it just to make as much money and get out with your health intact?

Honestly, I just take everything one fight at a time.

Like, uh, had, had I already been looking past the last fight, I'd be like, OK.

Now let's start looking for ranked guys.

Yeah, that would have been the goal is like start climbing the ranks.

But everything, it's literally a flip of a coin, and then your path is going to change so much based on that flip of the coin.

Um.

It's one of those things, yeah, I, I just take it fight by fight and uh.

Yeah, I, I mean, I was surprised to, uh.

Get as far as I did, you know, that, that five-fight win streak was crazy and, uh, you know, it really helped me to understand like, oh, I belong here and like, this is what I'm meant to do.

So, I mean, I'm just gonna stick around as long as I can and yeah, the title would be awesome for sure, but.

Um, again, just take it fight by fight.

This is the toughest division in the sport, um, and.

I, I've been here for a while already.

I'm, I'm, I'm not done yet, so awesome.

Thanks so much for your time, Chase.

Really appreciate it.