UFC lightweights Michael Chandler and Dan Hooker will face each other in a privileged position as the main co-event of UFC 257, ahead of Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier, who leads the first pay-per-view of the year. As Daniel Cormier sees it, the winner of Chandler vs. Hooker would be wise to take a page from Khabib Nurmagomedov’s book.
The night McGregor defeated Eddie Alvarez, won the 155-pound title and became the first simultaneous champion in two divisions of the promotion at UFC 205, Nurmagomedov fought in the tie – the preliminaries, to be exact. He crushed and taunted Michael Johnson in the typical Khabib style before submitting him in the third round. Then came an aggressive and memorable call from McGregor, which boosted Nurmagomedov’s career path.
“Khabib is in the preliminaries: ‘I want to fight with your chicken.’ Suddenly, they started mentioning Khabib and Conor at the same time, “said Cormier on Monday during” DC & Helwani “on ESPN’s YouTube channel. “Khabib is not yet the champion; he’s a young guy on the rise, and then it all gets bigger. “
Less than two years later, Nurmagomedov fought McGregor at UFC 229 and made him give up on a crank around his neck.
Let’s move on to January 23, and Cormier sees the winner of the Chandler-Hooker in an ideal situation to make some noise before McGregor and Poirier take the step towards their highly anticipated rematch.
“For Chandler to be in the main co-event, it puts him in a perfect position. And Dan Hooker too, ”said Cormier. “If I go to Dan Hooker and win, I’m immediately saying something about McGregor. Whoever wins with 155 pounds on that fight card, you say something about McGregor. Why guess? McGregor does not have the ability to not respond. He will say something back. He will say something and lift you up. There is a level of stardom that comes with fighting (the same card as) and with this guy that I have never seen. “
Chandler (21-5 MMA, 0-0 UFC), the former Bellator lightweight champion, will make his long-awaited UFC debut, while Hooker (20-9 MMA, 10-5 UFC) seeks to recover from losing a candidate “Fight of the Year” for Poirier last June, which resulted in a three-game winning streak.
If Cormier is right in his assessment, perhaps the two hope that McGregor wins UFC 257.