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Daniel Cormier doesn’t like Dan Hooker’s mindset when it comes to being viewed as a gatekeeper.

Hooker was matched up against the debuting Salahdine Parnasse, who is a former two-division KSW titleholder. Parnasse passed his first test under the UFC banner with rave reviews, as he pummeled Hooker with a body kick and some ground punches to score the emphatic first-round TKO. Prior to the UFC Paris headliner, Hooker told reporters that he doesn’t mind embracing the gatekeeper role to a certain degree.

In a post-UFC Paris reaction video, Cormier shared his criticism of Hooker’s willingness to play that role (via MMAJunkie).

“When people generally hear that they’re a gatekeeper or put in that position, they’re mad,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “They’re upset, and they fight that with all that they can. Dan Hooker seemed to be embracing that and said, ‘There’ve been a couple losses, and then moving your way down the rankings, I’m more than happy to play the role that I’m in right now, and the role that I’m in right now is gatekeeping the top 10 of the UFC’s lightweight division.’ Me personally, I think there’s too much acceptance, too much comfort in that.”

It doesn’t help that “The Hangman” has lost three straight bouts. He is in search of his first win since 2024 when he took a split decision over Mateusz Gamrot. Cormier believes Hooker needs to change his mindset if he expects to get out of this skid.

“Losing hurts in any way,” Cormier continued. “You cannot accept that. When you hear a fighter do that, it just isn’t good because you do that before the fight, and then the fight goes in the way that it did. That’s not good. That’s really, really not good for Dan Hooker. So I’m very interested to see what happens with him going forward.”

Do you agree with Daniel Cormier on Dan Hooker embracing the gatekeeper role? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

This article appeared first on BJPENN.COM