UFC 293 Q&A Key Takeaways

Justin Gaethje, Dan Hooker, and Kai Kara-France appeared for a Q&A session as part of the fan/media experience while the UFC is stationed in Australia for UFC 293 and for the second time this year. This enabled the fighters to update their fan bases on their future and in comparison, to previous UFC PPV Q&A sessions, the fans were asking genuine respectful questions for the most part.

Hooker is out of a cast, back to grappling, and eyeing a return early next year.

Barely two months removed from a fight-of-the-year contender against Jalin Turner that resulted in a broken forearm from blocking a kick and a massive victory. When asked about his recovery and potential return Dan Hooker said he is feeling like a million bucks and would like to fight in January. It is also worth mentioning that Hooker seemed interested in getting another opportunity against former adversary Dustin Poirier more so than other mentioned fighters like Paul Felder (who is back in the USADA testing pool), and even the man sitting next to him Justin Gaethje. Hooker was receiving a lot of praise from the Australian fans and even alluded to the chance of a UFC Auckland card in the near future.

Gaethje showered with praise from Aussie fans.

The newly crowned BMF champion was met by positive reinforcement from the Australian fans who referred to him as a "sick c**t" which seems to be a term of endearment in the Oceanic region. Gaethje was asked what his future holds, and he seemed primarily focused on the upcoming UFC lightweight title fight between Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev next month. Despite fighting for UFC gold last year and coming up short, Gaethje has bounced back in a massive way with two impressive wins over dangerous contemporary. There was also the possibility of Gaethje facing the previous BMF champion Jorge Masvidal as it was brought up by a fan, but Gaethje did not seem that interested. It is also worth mentioning the legit respect Gaethje and Hooker have for one another with Gaethje considering Dan a BMF. A matchup between the two would be exciting but highly unlikely given their positions within the rankings right now. There were also rumblings from the fans who were interested in the idea of a Gaethje Poirier trilogy for the BMF belt which in all honesty seems to be inevitable.

Kara-France showered with praise for putting health first.

Despite Kai Kara-France coming up short in a close fight against Amir Albazi in June only to suffer a concussion that would force him out of his scheduled scrap this weekend with Manel Kape. Kai was shown great respect by his fellow Kiwis and gave many encouraging words when it came to the current position for the flyweight. It is worth noting that Manel Kape was rather aggressive towards Kara-France who was front and center for the official UFC 293 press conference. It feels as though this planted a seed for a match-up that despite falling through once, has to be rebooked. When asked who Kai was most interested in fighting upon his recovery and return, he didn't hesitate in saying Manel. Kara-France also offered several words of encouragement regarding his own personal journey and specified certain aspects that allow for the MMA journey to be prevalent and the main takeaway from all of them was simply putting in the hours on the mats. The exchanges/energy between the fighters on stage was pure and it was the type of camaraderie that simply comes with proving yourself time and time again.