Maurice Hooker is looking for another victory March 9 (Photo: Stacey Verbeek – Roc Nation)

By Chris Robinson

On Saturday, March 9, WBO junior welterweight champion Maurice “Mighty Mo” Hooker will look for a second successful defense of his belt when he faces off with Mikkel LesPierre inside of the Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York. The fight will air live on DAZN in the United States as well as on Sky Sports in the UK.

Hooker (25-0-3, 17 KO’s) is coming off of a thrilling battle this past November where he rose from a second round knockdown before stopping hometown favorite Alex Saucedo in the seventh round in Oklahoma City. LesPierre (21-0-1, 10KO’s) is an unbeaten fighter from Brooklyn but is relatively untested on the big stage.

For Hooker, it appears to be just another day at the office.

“What do I know about Mikkel? He’s going down on March 9, that’s all I know,” said Hooker. “He’ll be a little nervous and jittery. I’ll pop him with a hard jab early to see where his mind is. I’ll be looking in his eyes when I hit him to see how he reacts like, ‘god damn!’ or ‘OK, bring it’; that will tell me what he’s going to be like the whole fight, if he’s there to win and be great, or just there to collect the cheque.”

Hooker further assessed his foe and discussed how he thinks the fight might play out.

“He’s a short southpaw that’s going to sit outside the box, and he’s going to be in the danger-zone,” said Hooker. “I wish him the best in the build-up, I am sure that he’s trained hard as this is the biggest fight of his life. After the first round though, he’ll die down as he’ll be thinking ‘man this guy is long, rangy, I can’t get to him; and he hits hard’. He’ll shell up. But I’ll be explosive. Fighters say they don’t look for the KO; I am looking for a big KO on March 9, I want it bad and I will KO him.”

Check below for a closer look at Hooker’s recent training camp.

Chris Robinson can be reached at CRobinson@hustleboss.com