With some flight cancellations of the UFC card this week, they decided to bring in two guys to make another fighter. One of those is Kai Kamaka, making his return, and he’ll be welcoming promotional newcomer Dakota Hope. “Huracán” has had a successful career. He was the former Peak Fighting featherweight champ. He’s fought for LFA and Fury FC while also fighting in China at JCK Fight Night and WLF. He was lined up to fight for the Fury FC title in May, but is getting this opportunity instead.
This signing is another case of them bringing in Hope without any knowledge of his fights or him being with Iridium. I think it’s a mix of both because Hope isn’t the most exciting fighter, apart from his last fight. In fact, a double espresso wouldn’t survive five minutes watching him. He fights on thin margins and prioritizes position over damage.
I’d say the usual gameplan of Hope is to use his wrestling, and it’s where he’s best at. From range, he will telegraph his shots, but he has good cage wrestling. Hope will work upper body takedowns, utilize trips, and change levels to the legs. For someone who wants to lock in a lot of time on the mat, I’d like to see more submission upside. He only has one career submission, and it took him until round five to get that. His ground and pound is a better tool, but it’s more done in the open guard. That’s good and all, but he doesn’t generate a lot of power, nor is he focusing on advancing position.
Wrestling-first, grappling-limited. There’s a reason Hope doesn’t actively advance positions, and it’s because his jiu-jitsu isn’t up to par. Too many times I’ve seen him in full mount or on the back, and he loses position within minutes. It really seems that he has stiff hips in the grappling, which affects his ability to rotate and follow his opponent’s moves.
Limited grappling and also limited striking. At times, he’ll throw a good jab, but mostly everything is looping hooks until he closes the distance. His power translates if he hits, but he’s open to counters in the way he blitzes in. Hope is better at close range, where he can work on some Muay Thai things and cage push.
Overall, Hope is limited, and at 29, I don’t see much improvement coming. Although I’ve been wrong before, I rank Hope 72 of the 79 featherweights on the UFC’s featherweight roster.