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Dan Hooker Believes Win Over Dustin Poirier Should Earn Lightweight Title Shot



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Dan Hooker has accumulated a solid resume in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s lightweight division, and he believes one more victory could pay serious dividends.

Hooker will square off against former 155-pound interim champion Dustin Poirier in the UFC on ESPN 12 main event on June 27. The 30-year-old Auckland, New Zealand, native enters the contest on the strength of successive triumphs over James Vick, Al Iaquinta and Paul Felder, but Poirier would be the most impressive feather in his cap so far.

"I'll have wins over a No. 3 in Poirier, Paul Felder who was six and Al Iaquinta who was six, which gives me a lot of confidence that I'll be in line for a title shot," Hooker told t The Sporting News in reference to UFC.com's lightweight rankings.  

"When I beat Poirier, it puts me next in line and anyone that has a problem with that, they know whose number to call.”

A lightweight championship unification bout between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje is rumored for September, though that matchup has not been confirmed by the promotion. Outside of that, the contender’s queue is always crowded in one of the UFC’s deepest divisions. Hooker, who is 7-1 with five finishes at 155 pounds since moving up from featherweight in 2017, is confident his skills match up well with Poirier.

"I know what he brings to the table," Hooker said. "He's incredibly durable, a strong boxer, strong wrestler, very well rounded and very comfortable in the main event slot. This will be his fifth or sixth main event, so he definitely has some more experience coming into the five rounders. 

“That's something that needs to be respected. In terms of skill, I feel like mine match up very well with his and I feel I'm a bit sharper technically on the feet." 

Hooker was initially supposed to face Poirier in May, but the coronavirus pandemic put those plans on for a little more than a month. The delay may work out well for Hooker, who is coming off a grueling five-round battle with Felder on Feb. 23.

"It would've been 11 weeks between the Felder fight and the Poirier fight, and I'm not gonna lie, those first couple of weeks would've been pretty tough," he said. ”I kept it pretty quiet, but I wasn't in the best shape after that fight. The old legs were a bit beat up, the old noggin was a bit beat up, so the rest probably did me more good than harm.

"That time off really let my body reset and allowed my body and my brain heal.”

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