UFC Lightweight star Michael Chandler will be entering the octagon at UFC 257 to face Dan Hooker. Appearing on the latest episode of UFC Unfiltered, Chandler would say that he is excited and ready for the matchup.
“That’s one of the things that gets me excited about this matchup” Michael Chandler would begin on the podcast. “He [Hooker] is a little bit under the radar. He’s a guy who’s been silently working, getting after it for a long time. He’s got some great wins.”
Chandler would then praise Hooker for his fight against Dustin Poirier. “I mean he really needs to get a lot more credit for his last performance against Dustin Poirier. To take Dustin Poirier into the deep waters and have a fight like that? I mean that’s the upper echelon, it is the epitome of this UFC Lightweight division. So he’s the guy.”
Michael Chandler vs Dan Hooker
Michael Chandler would then mention how Hooker was not the original name for him to face in the promotion. “His name wasn’t being thrown around too much right?” Chandler stated. “Everybody kept seeing in the headlines ‘they’re working on Gaethje, they’re working on Ferguson.’ Ferguson turns down the fight then, calls Chandler out.’ Now everyone’s 100% sure it was going to be Gaethje, you know? ‘If anyone’s going to take the fight, it’s going to be Gaethje because he’s a gamer.”
Chandler would then throw a dig at Justin Gaethje, saying that he has not passed on the same benefits he had when he first stepped into the octagon. “Not to mention the fact that when he came over from another organisation with much less of a resume and much smaller organisation than I have? He comes in gets a top five guy right away” Chandler stated. “Then right after that? He draws the former champion in Eddie Alvarez. Had he when he won that fight? He would have got the title shot right away.”
“So he wasn’t exactly extending the same courtesy to me that he was extended by Michael Johnson” Michael Chandler continued, “We kind of thought that the Gaethje fight was gonna happen. But Dan Hooker was always looming, Dan Hooker was actually one of the only guys…I believe him and Paul Felder we’re about the only guys that really said my name and kind of talk about wanting to fight me?
If you use any or all of the quotes from this article please credit UFC Unfiltered and a h/t to Fighter Fans for the transcription
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