Dan Hooker wasn’t about to disrespect Paul Felder in the traditional Maori greeting but made sure to look him straight in the eye while doing so.
The traditional Maori greeting involves two people pressing their noses, and sometimes foreheads, together often used as a way to greet people in major ceremonies.
And ahead of their headliner this Saturday at UFC on ESPN+ 26 in Auckland, New Zealand, Hooker shook Felder’s hand then proceeded to intensely look into his eyes as they pressed noses. Hooker has made it clear this fight is personal for him, as he faced off with Felder for the second time.
Felder also faced off with Hooker’s City Kickboxing teammates, Brad Riddell, Kai Kara-France, and UFC champions Alexander Volkanovski and Israel Adesanya.
While his faceoff with Felder may not have been as heated as the first time around, Hooker knew he had to hold back out of respect for the Maori culture.
“Accepting it coming in, the Maori’s is a place of peace,” Hooker said. “You can’t bring any tension like that to a Maori. It would have been incredibly disrespectful of me to push him or shove him or disrespect him and deny the hongi, so I’m a man of respect. I had to give the hongi because I respect the Maori culture so much, and I respect the people, and this is their land, this is the culture, so yeah, you have to abide by that. I have too much respect for the Maori culture to do anything silly or disrespectful.”
You can check out highlights of the ceremony above, as well as our photo gallery below.
