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When Dan Hooker pledged to fight Michael Chandler in the main co-event of UFC 257, he did so knowing that a trip to Fight Island would ultimately take him away from his family for almost two months.
After facing off against Dustin Poirier last June, the New Zealand native returned home for a two-week government-mandated quarantine as his home country continued to lock down travel in an effort to combat the deadly coronavirus pandemic .
It turns out that Hooker traveled from New Zealand to Abu Dhabi and back for Chandler’s fight, he will actually have to undergo a similar period of quarantine to get home, but he won’t even be able to travel there for several. weeks. after his fight.
“It’s a lot longer than that this time around,” Hooker revealed while speaking to MMA Fighting. “So our quarantine now when you get back to New Zealand you have to book it and I booked it as soon as I heard about the fight. So they booked me two months ago and the only date they could get was February 21st. So I have to stay in Abu Dhabi for another month, then do my two-week quarantine.
“I’m out of quarantine I think on March 3. I’m getting on the plane on Tuesday and I’ll see everyone in two months. It’s a two month trip for this fight.
It probably looks like extreme circumstances to return home, but Hooker understood that this was part of the deal if he wanted to leave New Zealand to travel to Abu Dhabi for the fight.
Much like his previous quarantine, Hooker will stay at a government-funded hotel where he will be essentially isolated from the rest of the world while undergoing constant testing to make sure he does not bring the coronavirus with him.
It also means Hooker will be separated from his family for almost two months outside of visits to the facility where he is staying.
“They can come down and wave to me through a few doors,” Hooker said. “They really sped it up here in New Zealand. We are lucky that we can do such a good job and we have to stick to it now.
Even though it breaks her heart to be away from her family for so long, Hooker explained how the New Zealand government’s strict procedures regarding COVID-19 have essentially eliminated the disease.
Since the start of the pandemic, New Zealand has reported just over 2,250 cases with 25 deaths nationwide, while maintaining quarantine procedures for anyone traveling in the country.
The end result is that life returns to a state similar to it before the pandemic and Hooker can’t complain too much about it.
“We’re totally normal,” Hooker said. “This is why we are so lucky. We take the border very seriously. We are free from COVID. Everyone was partying at festivals. We had festivals of 10, 20, 30,000 people all over the country for the New Year. Life is normal in New Zealand. “
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