Michael Chandler had been sitting out to fight Conor McGregor for nearly two years. However, with uncertainty still surrounding that matchup, he's moved on to face Charles Oliveira at UFC 309 in a five-round co-main event.
Chandler and Oliveira previously fought at UFC 262 for lightweight gold, which was the former's second fight in the UFC. "Do Bronxs" almost got knocked out in the first but bounced back by finishing "Iron" early in the second.
Top five UFC lightweight Dan Hooker is also close to a title shot following his win over Mateusz Gamrot. The fan-favorite brawler has an interesting theory on why the UFC has booked Oliveira and Chandler and how it benefits the promotion to have multiple contenders...
Dan Hooker Calls Charles Oliveira vs. Michael Chandler A Weird Fight But Understands Why The UFC Booked It
Hooker discussed the highly anticipated lightweight matchup between Chandler and Oliveira during an interview on the Submission Radio YouTube channel recently. He didn't initially seem too excited about the booking but also revealed why it makes sense for the UFC.
According to "The Hangman", the UFC wouldn't want Arman Tsarukyan to be the only title contender at lightweight for financial reasons. Negotiating with a fighter is harder if they're the only obvious choice to fight for any division's title, not just lightweight.
So, by booking Oliveira and Chandler for UFC 309, the UFC is looking to get another potential lightweight title contender. Meanwhile, Hooker can solidify a title shot too after winning his next fight. This way, the UFC will have three contenders for the belt and instead of rigid negotiations, the promotion can initiate a bidding war between the three.
Yeah, I still think it's Arman next and then, I feel like it's such a. I can see why the UFC's kind of matching the fights that they're matching these fights is because they want options, right? Because if there's just, if there's just one guy that's like head and shoulders next in line for the title and it's set in stone, then, obviously, negotiating becomes very difficult for them because they're like everyone expects this fight, the pressure's on the UFC to make this fight so obviously, the bloke can ask for a s**t ton more money.
"The Hangman" then explained how the situation mentioned above can be neutralized by having multiple contenders:
If the UFC matches a bunch of fights and gets like three or four contenders and no one's really sure about who's next. Then, like, it becomes like just a bit of a bidding war between the fighters. So, I get why the UFC is doing it the way they're doing it is because they want as many guys that make sense for the title as they possibly can. So, yeah, Chandler gets by him, you know, I win my next fight, then you got three guys that have like justification for getting a title shot.
Despite it being obvious to most fans, the UFC hasn't booked Islam Makhachev against Tsarukyan because of the champion's injury. The lightweight kingpin is expected to return by the end of 2024 or early 2025, and getting a couple more contenders by then seems like the best-case scenario for the promotion, according to Hooker's theory.