The two light-heavyweights will meet at Maverick MMA 1 inside Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania April 7, 2017, but it all started with a Facebook post.
“He was tagging people in a post saying, ‘this guy won’t fight me because my biceps are too big’ and ‘I wonder if Alec Hooben will accept this fight?,'” Hooben said. “I was like ‘who the fuck is that guy?”
Hooben accepted the fight on one condition. Wade, a former welterweight fighter, needed to make the move to 205 lbs.
The 24-year-old never put Wade on his radar before, but once Wade called him out, things changed. Desperate for a fight, the bout made sense for Hooben.
“I wasn’t going to let this guy talk to me that way,” Hooben said. “And I won’t let him get away with it.”
Hooben is currently riding a two-fight win streak. He earned a unanimous decision against Jordan Mitchell at King’s Promotions X 1 Jan. 30, 2016.
In the following bout, he submitted Danny Holmes at Cage Fury Fighting Championships 58 May 21, 2016.
In his professional debut, Hooben tapped Jeremy Linville with a triangle choke at Ring of Combat 45 June 14, 2013. After suffering a technical knockout to Eric Roncoroni at CFFC 30 in November 2013, he finished Charles Gamble with a first-round kimura at Global Proving Ground Feb. 21, 2015.
Two weeks prior to scheduling a match with Wade, Hooben planned to fight outside of the region for the first time in his career.
On March 2, 2017, he signed with Top Alliance Combat management company. Hoping he would not have to make a move down to middleweight, the Pompton Lakes, New Jersey native hired Tammy Stone to help him find a bout.
“After being unable to find fights at light-heavyweight in New Jersey and Pennsylvania for so long, I had two choices: drop down to middleweight or fight outside the area. Since I sure as f@%k don’t want to go to middleweight at this stage of my career, I will now be looking to fight outside the area, wherever there’s a light-heavyweight division,” Hooben said. “I decided to message Tammy Stone, a manager I had been friends with on Facebook for a while now. I’ve seen how hard she works to get her fighters matched up.”
Now, Hooben is three days away from his seventh professional bout. Although Hooben felt disrespected by Wade, his opponent is somewhat of a blessing.
Hooben needed someone to fight and Wade made sure he would be the standing across from him. It is business and nothing personal.
“I don’t really know him, I just see how arrogant he is from those posts,” Hooben said. “I just wanted a fight.”
By NJ MMA News Staff