The anticipated upcoming UFC 313 co-main event between lightweight stars Justin Gaethje and Dan Hooker has been officially scheduled for five rounds, the organization announced this week.
Anyone familiar with either fighter knows the sheer potential for violence this style matchup presents, and instead of it being three five-minute rounds it is scheduled for five rounds, which is a distinction typically reserved for title fights or main event attractions.
Both athletes are high-volume strikers with plenty of knockout wins and performance bonuses on their respective résumés.
UFC 313, which takes place March 8 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, will be Gaethje's first appearance since getting brutally knocked out by Max Holloway at the literal last second of their BMF Title fight last year at UFC 300. He had previously won the BMF Title when he won knocked out Dustin Poirier at UFC 291 in 2023.
Gaethje is 25-5 in his mixed martial arts career and has been quantifiably the most consistent exciting fighter on the UFC roster since making his organizational debut in 2017, earning at least one performance bonus in all but two of his fights.
The one-time interim lightweight titleholder has 13 total performance bonuses (eight Fight of the Night and five Performance of the Night) during his 13-fight UFC career with his two title fight losses to Khabib Nurmagomedov and Charles Oliveira being the only outings in which he didn’t receive one.
Hooker is 24-12 as a pro and 14-8 in the UFC since 2014, keeping in mind half of his UFC losses have been when he competes as a featherweight.
“The Hangman” has won three in a row after returning to the lightweight division following a brief venture back down to 145 pounds, including back-to-back split decision victories as the underdog when he beat Mateusz Gamrot and Jalin Turner.
Hooker has never been in an official BMF Title fight during his UFC career, although he has participated in many unofficial BMF qualifying contests, so to speak, over the years. Hooker also holds wins over Gilbert Burns and Jim Miller, knows what it’s like sharing the cage with current champ Islam Makhachev, plus his wars of attrition against Edson Barboza, Paul Felder and his 2020 classic with Poirier helped gain him the reputation as one of the toughest outs in the entire division.
A great deal of damage is likely to be dished out in both directions for as long as this fight lasts.
Gaethje, 36, only has four decisions in his career and has landed more than 100 significant strikes in seven separate UFC bouts. He lands 6.78 significant strikes per minute at 59 per cent accuracy while absorbing a whopping 7.46 significant strikes per minute.
Hooker, who turns 35 in February, lands 5.03 and absorbs 4.72 per minute by comparison. This will be his first scheduled five-round contest since his back-to-back bouts with Felder and Poirier five years ago.
UFC 313 is headlined by a light-heavyweight title fight between champion Alex Pereira and No. 1 contender Magomed Ankalaev.
Other bouts that have already been announced for the card include:
-- Djorden Santos vs. Ozzy Diaz
-- Bruno Silva vs. Joshua Van
-- Brunno Ferreira vs. Armen Petrosyan
-- Alex Morono vs. Carlos Leal
-- Mairon Santos vs. Francis Marshall
-- Chris Gutierrez vs. Jean Matsumoto
-- Amanda Lemos vs. Iasmin Lucindo
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