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Dan Hooker believes there are only three fights that make sense for his career if he manages to defeat Dustin Poirier in the main event of UFC on ESPN 12 this Saturday night.
Dan Hooker is of the view that a win over Poirier will earn him a shot at the UFC lightweight title, meaning a fight against the winner of the upcoming title-unification bout between Justin Gaethje and Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Dan Hooker would love to fight Conor McGregor and Tony Ferguson in the near future
However, even if he doesn't get the title shot right away, Dan Hooker has two other top-5 opponents in mind in Tony Ferguson and Conor McGregor. Though he'd love to compete against both men inside the Octagon, Hooker, in an interview with Submission Radio said he will call out neither.
“[If] I beat Dustin Poirier there’s only three fights in my future. That’s either fight for the title, fight Tony Ferguson or fight Conor McGregor. So, I feel like I’m in a position to get called out and get called out by either Tony Ferguson or Conor McGregor. I’ve been calling these guys out for years, and I feel like with this fight, it puts me in a position where I’m not a guy that’s running around chasing all of these people, I feel like they can come to me.”
While Dan Hooker wants to throw down with both Ferguson and McGregor, he believes the former might actually be interested, but doubts the supposedly retired Irishman will ever challenge him to a fight.
“He would be stupid to come and get that fight,” Hooker said of MCGregor. I’m just being honest. Not skill for skill. I’m very aware it’s in his best interest to fight another pay-per-view draw, fight another name guy that draws pay-per-views or draws the general public’s attention to him. So, it would just come down to numbers, and when it comes down to numbers, I don’t feel like I’m the best fight for him.”
