Dan Hooker didn’t shy away from the truth after his loss to Arman Tsarukyan. He acknowledged that he was outclassed, joked that he “sucks,” and immediately began looking for a fight with someone he believes is in the same situation as him. While ‘The Hangman’ has been unusually self-critical, others in the division have been far more specific about why things went wrong for him, particularly one man who understands the ground game better than most.

Renato Moicano watched that fight closely, and what he saw was not difficult to explain. In fact, he believes ‘The Hangman’ committed an obvious mistake that changed the outcome of the fight. And when Moicano laid out his reasoning, he didn’t sugarcoat anything.

Moicano details Hooker’s “huge mistake” against Tsarukyan

Renato Moicano told Ariel Helwani that the moment he saw Dan Hooker reach for the guillotine, he knew where the fight was headed. He said, “No disrespect to Dan Hooker, but he was not in the same level as Arman in wrestling… Hooker did well on his feet, but I think he did a huge mistake pulling for the guillotine twice.”

To ‘Money,’ that wasn’t a strategy, but the beginning of the end instead. But what surprised him the most was how ‘The Hangman’ handled the position after he got it. Moicano broke down exactly what bothered him: “He had the guillotine-like rolling like the tail of a gator… but if Dan was a little bit better on the grappling, he would take his back.” That was a simple position to take the back or perhaps complete the choke.

Instead, Hooker let it go, lost the scramble, and handed ‘Ahalkalakets’ the opportunity he needed. And the most shocking part wasn’t Dan Hooker’s choice, but Arman Tsarukyan’s escape. “To be honest, I never seen somebody doing an escape like that,” Moicano further added on The Ariel Helwani Show. The Armenian flipped out of the second guillotine attempt, reversed the position, and the fight transitioned to suffocating control, culminating in the arm-triangle finish.

Renato Moicano believes that a single technical error triggered all that came after. Even Dan Hooker admits he made some major blunders. Speaking to TheMacLife after the fight, he admitted to entirely ignoring one of the division’s biggest red flags: even Charles Oliveira, the UFC’s most dangerous submission artist, couldn’t guillotine Arman Tsarukyan.

‘The Hangman’ laughed, remembering Oscar Willis’ first words to him: “So Charles Oliveira couldn’t guillotine him, and you thought you’d give it a crack?” And Hooker’s reply was as blunt as it gets: “I did.” Oliveira came close to finishing Tsarukyan at UFC 300 but couldn’t get it off.

And Hooker admitted he had simply “forgotten” that Do Bronx couldn’t catch Tsarukyan with the same choke. But now, what’s done is done. And the exciting lightweight is looking to go one-on-one against Renato Moicano for a really bizarre reason.

Hooker issues hilarious callout to Renato Moicano

For Dan Hooker, all the post-fight honesty quickly turned into something else: humor. If Arman Tsarukyan exposed his flaws, Moicano, in his opinion, belongs right next to him on the “cooked by the elites” list. That is why he wants him next. Hooker told The Mac Life, “It’s a good fight. We both suck.”

In his perspective, Islam Makhachev cooked Moicano, and Arman cooked him; therefore, a “cook-off” was the only natural next step. ‘The Hangman’ didn’t stop with jokes. He claims to have informed UFC executive Hunter Campbell the same night, “Moicano sucks. Let me give Moicano a hiding.” It wasn’t meant to be a harsh callout; Hooker was only pointing out the absurdity of two veterans attempting to recover at the same time.

Both men suffered significant losses. Both require a fight that makes sense. That is sufficient cause for Dan Hooker. He even tossed out a venue: a potential Sydney event in February. Whether the UFC bites or not, Hooker is adamant about one thing: he’s not running away from the defeat, he’s not pretending the night went differently, and he’s already ready to go back in with someone he believes is just as cooked as him.