Dan Hooker was supposed to fight former UFC Interim Lightweight Champion Dustin Poirier at UFC Fight Night San Diego, which was one of the events recently postponed by the promotion due to the coronavirus.
Hooker, who is still training despite the fight postponement, still wants his shot at the former interim lightweight champion.
“I like the matchup, two of the most skilled strikers in that top five, but his ranking, man, that’s really why, irrelevant of everyone else, he’s No. 2 in the world and he’s the last guy to fight for the title,” Hooker said to MMA Junkie. “If you want to put yourself in position for a title shot, beating the last guy to fight for the title in a main event is how you do that. Regardless of everything else, I feel like I match up well against anyone in the entire division. So that was genuinely, just for rankings, I’ll look, I get the No. 2, and then I’ll look at the actual styles and how we match up once I get the fight contract.”
Amanda Ribas and Paige VanZant were expecting to clash last month at UFC Fight Night Brasilia, but PVZ pulled out of the bout due to an arm injury.
Ribas would still like to fight PVZ and she would like to hold their encounter on the “Fight Island” being built by the UFC.
“I want to go to Dana’s Island,” Ribas told MMA Junkie. “She wants to go too, so let’s do it. I think it will be a good fight, not just for me, but for the fans, the UFC, too. She put that on the Twitter, (so) why not? I did a tweet (calling her out).”
The UFC is approximately a month away from the completion of their “Fight Island,” which would give both Hooker and Ribas the chance to get those bouts they crave.
