Michael Chandler Says Dan Hooker is Very Respected Among UFC Fighters

Michael Chandler made his name as lightweight at Bellator. During his stint with Scott Coker’s promotion, Chandler was a multiple-time champion and defended his belt frequently. However, after his contract expired, ‘Iron’ sought new challenges in his MMA career and signed with the premier MMA organization in the world to test himself against the best of the best. 

Though he did cut weight leading up to UFC 254, he did not get to compete at the event as both Khabib and Justin made the walk to the octagon. Since then, both MMA fans, and Michael Chandler himself have been waiting for his debut in the UFC. He gets to prove himself and introduce UFC fans to who Michael Chandler this Saturday. 

Read: Conor McGregor fight inevitable- Michael Chandler ready for his biggest challenge at UFC 

Michael Chandler assesses his first opponent in the UFC. 

In a recent interview with SCMP MMA, Andrew Whitelaw asked Michael Chandler what he made of his opponent, Dan Hooker. 

‘Iron’ continued, “As far as Dan Hooker himself, as you alluded to, he’s an awesome competitor. He’s a tough guy. He can take damage, he can dish it out. And he’s tough in every single aspect of the sport you know…. He’s a champion in every sense of the word. He’s got a lot of respect amongst our peers as well, he’s a fighter’s fighter.”

Michael Chandler takes on one of the toughest fighters at lightweight in his UFC debut. Although Hooker is coming into the fight on the back of a loss, the fighter’s fighter can never be counted out, as he pushed Dustin Poirier to the limit. 

Chandler on the other hand is coming into the fight on the back of two first-round KOs. Going into the fight, he will have a serious deficit to ‘The Hangman’ in both height and reach. Hence, it will be interesting to see how ‘Iron’ Chandler will handle that in his first fight inside an octagon.