UFC star Dan Hooker recently appeared on TheMacLife’s Pub Talk, where he opened with a blunt explanation for why he was late to the recording.
“As I was placing the bets,” he said, “I lost a lot of money yesterday.”
From there, the conversation quickly circled back to his ongoing relationship with gambling. “I’ve been gambling a lot,” Hooker said, linking it directly to criticism around gambling sponsorships and public perception.
He continued, “A lot of people that promote gambling, people give them s**t. They come along and they’re just like, you can’t promote gambling. Like people have serious problems. I’m like, I have a serious problem.”
Hooker then described a moment earlier that same day that made the situation feel more immediate.
“I was like standing there today after I lost a lot of money yesterday and I was like, all right, I’m done. I’m done,” he said. “And I was like, found myself standing at the tab machine just like, ‘Yeah, I’ve got a problem.’”
But that resolve didn’t last long. “No,” he admitted, “I was like just clicking on the horses and I was like, ‘Ooh, that one looks good. I like that jockey.’”
Later in the episode, when his host pointed out the gambling machines in the background of the pub and joked that they seemed to be “calling” Hooker, he clarified where his attention actually goes.
“I don’t even play puggies. I’m in horses,” he said.
Additionally, Hooker has also recently been drawn into off-cage controversy after a social media video surfaced featuring a woman who claimed to be his former partner. She alleged they were involved in a financially supported relationship that began in 2023 when she says she met him while working as an exotic dancer.
In a video, she alleged Hooker became a regular client before eventually offering to fund her lifestyle entirely, claiming he covered her rent across multiple countries and provided ongoing financial support. She further stated that Hooker’s wife was aware of the arrangement.
