Dan Hooker has been waiting like a caged animal for his opportunity to get back into, well, a cage.
The Kiwi UFC star has been in unfamiliar territory this year. After facing a medical stand down period due to a concussion suffered in his December loss to Edson Barboza, the 29-year-old lightweight has had to sit through the longest inactive streak of his mixed martial arts career.
"It was kind of a blessing in disguise," Hooker said. "I've never sat on the shelf for seven months before and it's kind of starting all over again. It's completely reset me, I feel like a new fighter after that amount of time.
"I'm itching to get back in there. I've wanted this for a very long time; to get another chance, another shot to get back on track and here it is."
While waiting to finally make his return to the octagon, Hooker has spent the majority of the past seven months training as usual. While he couldn't fight, he watched as a large number of his City Kickboxing teammates prepared for and went into fights in their various disciplines; the most notable of which being Israel Adesanya who won the UFC interim middleweight championship in April.