With his hand raised inside the octagon, Dan Hooker had a message to get off his chest: "don't hunt what you can't kill."
It was a nod to the odds he had to overcome to get into the octagon for his fight on Sunday against Nasrat Haqparast at UFC 266 in Las Vegas.
From the police being called and subsequently breaking up a bubble set up that City Kickboxing believed was in line with Covid-19 restrictions, to then being told he couldn't train with members of that bubble despite starting the lockdown with them, to finally needing a last-minute meeting to secure his visa, Hooker didn't let the odds get the better of him.
He only arrived in Las Vegas about 12 hours before having to weigh in, yet against Haqparast, Hooker looked as good as he has in recent years.
"I spent the last four weeks of my training camp training in my garage back in New Zealand," Hooker said after the bout, "so I want to thank everyone that supported me but, more than that, I want to thank everyone that tried to stop me from being here because you gave me the motivation to get here."