The first two fights of the main card featured two crowd favorites and quick endings as Dan Hooker and Chris Gutierrez came away with wins.
As Hooker strutted into the arena waving his hands slowly, the crowd erupted — a stark contrast from the faint cheers Claudio Puelles received just moments before.
Hooker’s crowd advantage was ignited inadvertently by Puelles’s fighting strategy, which seemed to be to get Hooker to the ground at all costs. At multiple points throughout the fight, Hooker stood while Puelles laid on his back while the crowd booed. Eventually, in the second round, Hooker connected on a kick to the midsection that crumpled Puelles and ended the fight, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
“Any man walking this earth can get it!” Hooker said in the post-fight interview before kissing the interviewer, Joe Rogan.
Hooker had lost four of his last fights heading into Saturday, with his last two losses ending in the first round. Hooker was one of four New Zealand natives fighting on Saturday along with Brad Riddell, Carlos Ulberg, and Israel Adesanya, who all train together under the same coach, Eugene Bareman of City Kickboxing gym.
The crowd got even louder than it did for Hooker while cheering for Frankie Edgar, who said Saturday night would be his last mixed martial arts fight. The crowd booed Edgar’s opponent, Chris Gutierrez.
But the cheers for Edgar didn’t prove fruitful as Edgar walked into a ferocious knee from Gutierrez just as fans began a “Let’s go Freddie” chant.
The win was Gutierrez’s fourth straight. After the fight ended, he hugged and talked with Edgar for a few minutes. While Edgar’s mixed martial arts career is over, he said last week that he would be willing to jump in the boxing ring with a popular fighter, like Manny Pacquiao, for an exhibition match.