Michael Chandler finally moving past the Conor McGregor fight to take on Charles Oliveira at UFC 309 is bound to shake up the UFC lightweight division. Ahead of the return of the former title challenger, Dan Hooker has also emerged as a new contender with three straight wins.
Hooker has returned to the top five lightweight rankings and claims to be more serious than ever about earning a title shot. He wouldn't risk going into fights injured or without proper training. "The Hangman" is open to money fights with the likes of McGregor as well.
Here's why Hooker thinks it makes more sense for McGregor to fight him than Chandler but the Dubliner must fulfill a unique condition...
Hooker opened up on the current state of the UFC lightweight division in an interview on the Submission Radio YouTube channel recently. He explained that after a nearly two-year-long layoff, the Chandler matchup wasn't intriguing enough for McGregor.
Beating Chandler wouldn't have helped the Irishman claim a title shot or even enter the top five UFC lightweight rankings. So, Hooker suggests that fighting a top ranked and active lightweight like himself is a more sensible option for "The Notorious" at this point.
He's without a fight. I know Conor's hungry to fight, um, and fight someone that he can get something from and make a lot of sense. That's why I feel like Chandler kind of sitting there and waiting, he, and not staying active, you kind of lose. Like what does he get out of Chandler. He doesn't even get in the... he knocks out Michael Chandler in the first round, Conor McGregor doesn't even get in the top five off of that performance. So, therefore, like, it doesn't. It stopped making sense for Conor McGregor to fight Michael Chandler.
Hooker also admitted he'd be more than happy to fight McGregor. He remembered that there's no bad blood between the two and stylistically, their bout would be quite entertaining for fans of striking and violence.
"The Hangman" joked (or maybe not) about the stipulation he'll lay down for fighting McGregor. Both fighters must prove that they've been drinking beers every day of fight camp or they show failed breathalyzer tests daily.
That's a stipulation of the fight, we have to send each other drinking beers every single day of fight camp. We have to, we have to both agree to both agree. We maybe, we can get a breathalyzer, we can send each other a failed breathalyzer test every day of fight camp and we'll get this thing squared away."
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