Dan Hooker would love to send Michael Chandler ‘back to the B-Leagues’
“I would love to be the guy to welcomes him to the UFC, knees his chin off, sends him back to the B-Leagues.”
Dan Hooker believes the UFC’s fresh signing of Michael Chandler is the perfect opportunity to reinsert himself into the lightweight title picture, with ‘The Hangman’ claiming that he would send the former three-time Bellator lightweight champion ‘back to the B-leagues’ in Bellator.
Hooker, who is looking to rebound from his decision loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC on ESPN 12, gave his take on the UFC-Chandler signing in a recent interview with Submission Radio.
“Well, it was hard when people were speculating it and saying about the fight, it’s hard to know how much stock the UFC is putting into someone that’s coming from another organization,” Hooker said. “But for him to now be signed to the organization and being the fill-in for the title shot, now I know. Now I’m certain of how much stock [they’re putting in]. The UFC is putting a lot of stock in on this kid. So, I would love to be the guy to welcomes him to the UFC, knees his chin off, sends him back to the B-Leagues.”
“Yeah, I would (take the fight)” he added. “If Sean Shelby calls me right now and he says Michael Chandler, UFC two hundred and whatever, we can put that together, we can make that happen. Of course.”
Chandler is on standby for the upcoming lightweight title unification bout between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 and will serve as a replacement should one of the fighters pull out.
As for Hooker, the New Zealander wants to fight again by the end of the year and says his top pick — besides Chandler — is former interim lightweight champ Tony Ferguson.
“I’m 100 percent gonna get back in there before the end of the year,” Hooker said. “That’s something I’m very set on. I’ve had a good amount of time to recover, I’m back in the gym, I’m fit, I’m training and I’m ready to jump in a camp and get back in there. So, late November, December, my schedule’s wide open. So, we’re gonna book something.”
“Top pick hands down would have to be Tony Ferguson. That’s a fight that I would love to jump in. Just because of the mystique around Tony Ferguson. I would love to get in there and just compete with the guy. But coming in at a close second, Michael Chandler. You throw him in for a world title, you throw him in first fight as the backup for a world title, that definitely shows the stock that the UFC is putting into that guy, and I would love to get in there and knee him in the face. Third, I keep getting broken translations from random reporters that like ‘Charles Oliveira’s calling you out, Charles is calling you out’. Where? Charles Oliveira, get on a video, say, ‘Dan Hooker, I want to fight you’. It’s not a difficult thing to do. I don’t speak Portuguese, my friend, I cannot understand you. I cannot understand translations. Say it to me, and we’ll put that fight together and we’ll make it happen. Any of those three. Tony Ferguson, Michael Chandler, Charles Oliveira, put your hand up, we’ll get in there. Who wants to get in there and compete?”
UFC 254: Khabib vs. Gaethje will take place next month, Oct. 24 at Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.