Tag: chase hooper

Chase Hooper Looking Forward to Showing Off New Skills at UFC 263

Chase HooperChase Hooper is one of the youngest and brightest prospects in the UFC’s featherweight division entering his fight at UFC 263 against Steven Peterson. While he has been mostly known for his impressive grappling skills, he’s been working on the other areas of MMA ahead of the bout on Saturday. Hooper has been training with […]

Chase Hooper

Chase Hooper is one of the youngest and brightest prospects in the UFC’s featherweight division entering his fight at UFC 263 against Steven Peterson. While he has been mostly known for his impressive grappling skills, he’s been working on the other areas of MMA ahead of the bout on Saturday.

Hooper has been training with Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson and Ryan Hall ahead of the fight with Peterson, brushing up on his jiu-jitsu prowess with Hall and getting some striking tips from one of the most diverse strikers in the game in Thompson.

In a recent interview with MMA fighting, Hooper gave fans an insight into his new and improved skillset ahead of the Peterson fight.

“I feel like the last fight there was a bunch of fundamentals wrong with my striking,” Hooper said. “I felt there was something missing that was putting me out of position and not letting me realize the potential of my strikes. We worked on the basics and got rid of the bad habits I had.”

“I’m not even 22 yet and still have a long ways to go from the prime of my career. I gotta prove I deserve the amount of attention I’ve been getting in the UFC, putting the time in. I’m gonna keep growing for a while and have a positive outlook on my career and making the necessary improvements.”

The 21-year-old Hooper burst onto the UFC scene after an impressive win over Canaan Kawaihae on Dana White‘s Contender Series 14. Before that, he had an undefeated record fighting on the regional scene in Washington State and earned the championships in Combat Games and Dominate FC.

Hooper suffered his first professional loss at UFC 250 against Alex Caceres by unanimous decision. He had won his UFC debut against Daniel Teymur at UFC 245.

Hooper has a long way to go in his career and has a lot of potential to do great things in the featherweight division. His next bout at UFC 263 will do a lot to burst his stock as he continues his rise through the ranks in the 145-pound division.

Do you think Chase Hooper can be a UFC star one day?

Chase Hooper: O’Malley Thinks He’s Too Cool For The Askren Family

Chase HooperChase Hooper is proud to be “adopted” by his doppelganger and metaphorical father, Ben Askren. What started as a joke on Twitter, comparing the appearances of the eventual father-son duo would turn out to make a funny relationship between the two UFC fighters. Rising star Sean O’Malley would also be brought into the mix of […]

Chase Hooper

Chase Hooper is proud to be “adopted” by his doppelganger and metaphorical father, Ben Askren.

What started as a joke on Twitter, comparing the appearances of the eventual father-son duo would turn out to make a funny relationship between the two UFC fighters.

Rising star Sean O’Malley would also be brought into the mix of memes as he shared the iconic curly brown hair with Askren and Hooper. However, “Suga” was not a fan of that spice. Perhaps, it was because Askren never got in touch on Father’s Day.

Two months later, Askren would give a harsh assessment of his ‘son’ O’Malley’s first-ever career loss. On the dawn of UFC 252, O’Malley was carried out on a stretcher out of the Octagon, having endured Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera’s barrage of leg kicks. Askren was embarrassed at the sight. “Funky” reminded the media that when he was on the receiving end of Jorge Masvidal’s record-breaking 5-second KO he did not need a stretcher to exit the cage.

O’Malley wasn’t fond of Askren’s post-fight comments:

“God, big Ben,” said O’Malley. “I thought you were smarter. I didn’t know you were stupid. It’s just stupid. If you ask the smartest person in the world, you smash their foot and you say, ‘Do you want to walk over there or do you want to be carted?’ They would take the cart.”

Ever since then, it is clear that O’Malley wants nothing to do with “The Askren Bunch.”

In an interview with MMA Island, Chase Hooper went into more detail why O’Malley (before the drama) never took on the curly-haired role in the first place.

“He’s like a young rebellious teen.” described Hooper. “[O’Malley] thinks he’s too cool for this type of thing.”

“I think people really have an idea for what they want people to see them as and he doesn’t want to have like a comedic side to things like that. He wants it to be like his own thing that he kind of comes up with and that his personality is about.”

“But, when I met him he was super cool. Pretty similar to myself, he’s a very quiet guy– He’s just really good at stand-up obviously. He’s good at the post-fight stuff, too.”

Do you think Sean O’Malley should embrace his role as part of The Askren Family as Chase Hooper has?

Chase Hooper Begins With Training ‘Wonderboy’ At Upstate Karate

Chase HooperEver since his incredible comeback win over Peter Barrett at UFC 256, the MMA world has been wondering, where will 21-year old prospect Chase Hooper upgrade his striking at? We finally have the answer. The youngest fighter on the UFC roster has been revealed to have been training at Upstate Karate, under the tutelage of […]

Chase Hooper

Ever since his incredible comeback win over Peter Barrett at UFC 256, the MMA world has been wondering, where will 21-year old prospect Chase Hooper upgrade his striking at? We finally have the answer.

The youngest fighter on the UFC roster has been revealed to have been training at Upstate Karate, under the tutelage of UFC contender, Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson and his father, Ray Thompson Sr.

Ray Thompson said that Hooper and his son, Stephen, had been in contact for a while, noticeably streaming video games on Twitch. ‘Wonderboy’ would go on to invite Hooper to train with him and his dad at Upstate Karate in Simpsonville, South Carolina. Hooper accepted the offer, however, he would make it a mystery to his fans who he was training with.

Ray Thompson says Hooper has been training at Upstate Karate for almost 2 weeks and he’s been very impressed with Hooper’s work ethic so far.

“He’s progressing and he’s working.” Ray Thompson told MMA Island. “He works hard, makes no excuses, complains zero. He’s a young kid with a great attitude. Love working with him, I really do.”

Already being a specialist on the ground and now training in karate, Thompson believes in a bright future for “The Teenage Dream.”

“He’s a smart kid, he catches on quick. He just got all kinds of great fighting attributes for a 145er. The kids’ 6’1, he cuts that weight and he’s healthy when he does it.”

“If we can keep him coming back regularly, I think it will really, really up his game, his striking game. If he takes to some of the things that we do, oh my goodness…. The 145 bracket better be put on notice because his ground game is great. Gotta him moving, get his footwork going, get his hands snapping with punches. He drives them but doesn’t snap them.”

“Get that snap going– he’ll a much more significant fighter than he is today.

Hooper would go on Twitter and explain the reasoning for traveling cross-country to Upstate Karate, rather than going to Thailand to train with Tiger Muay Thai.

“Thailand is still pretty shut down.” said Hooper. “I would’ve had to quarantine in a hotel for two weeks to even be able to get into the country.”

“I’m getting a lot of great work in with Wonderboy and his team. Working on fixing a lot of the little details and adding some stuff as well.”

Chase Hooper will train at Upstate Karate until January 30th. Do you think this will help him take it to the next level?

Chase Hooper Credits Ben Askren, Ryan Hall For UFC 256 Win

Chase Hooper has credited Ben Askren and Ryan Hall for his UFC 256 comeback win. Hooper opened up the pay-per-view event against Peter Barrett and in the first two rounds was getting picked apart on the feet. His leg was also badly damaged, but in the …

Chase Hooper has credited Ben Askren and Ryan Hall for his UFC 256 comeback win. Hooper opened up the pay-per-view event against Peter Barrett and in the first two rounds was getting picked apart on the feet. His leg was also badly damaged, but in the third round, went for an imanari roll and got […]

The post Chase Hooper Credits Ben Askren, Ryan Hall For UFC 256 Win appeared first on MMA News.

Chase Hooper Rallies, Stops Peter Barrett With Heel-Hook – UFC 256 Highlights

HooperOn the verge of a momentum snapping second straight loss, featherweight prospect, Chase ‘The Dream’ Hooper rallied expertly in the third-round, to nab a heel-hook submission of striker, Peter Barrett. Suffering a slew of early and often leg kick attacks, Hooper was against the kosh from the get go, failing to land anything majorly impactful […]

Hooper

On the verge of a momentum snapping second straight loss, featherweight prospect, Chase ‘The Dream’ Hooper rallied expertly in the third-round, to nab a heel-hook submission of striker, Peter Barrett.

Suffering a slew of early and often leg kick attacks, Hooper was against the kosh from the get go, failing to land anything majorly impactful with a single round remaining in the night’s first bout. Shooting twice for an imanari roll on occasion in the second, Hooper briefly threatened.

Compremised due to a barrage of calf kicks, Hooper once more utilised an imanari roll to close range, this time setting up an inverted heel-hook with three-minutes elapsed on the final-round clock, eventually forcing the tap from Mark DellaGrote product, Barrett.

Below, catch the highlights of Hooper’s massive return to the win-column with his wily finish over Barrett.

VIDEO | Ben Askren & Chase Hooper Prank Ariel Helwani

Ben AskrenFormer Bellator and ONE Championship welterweight titleholder Ben Askren filled in for the UFC 252 bound Daniel Cormier on the latest episode of ‘DC & Helwani’ with hilarious results. Askren brought in UFC featherweight Chase Hooper to help play a joke on the veteran MMA reporter Ariel Helwani. Hooper quickly walks into and out of […]

Ben Askren

Former Bellator and ONE Championship welterweight titleholder Ben Askren filled in for the UFC 252 bound Daniel Cormier on the latest episode of ‘DC & Helwani’ with hilarious results.

Askren brought in UFC featherweight Chase Hooper to help play a joke on the veteran MMA reporter Ariel Helwani. Hooper quickly walks into and out of shot before Askren manages to convince Helwani that the 145lb prospect is not Hooper and is in fact his son who was born when Askren was just 16-years-old. It’s not until about 30 minutes later ‘Funky’ reveals the prank and to a very shocked Helwani – check out the full video below…