Dan Hooker gets that the UFC has significant plans for Michael Chandler. After all, the latter is one of the UFC’s biggest free-agent signings in recent years.

But, now that Hooker has been tapped to fight the former Bellator champ in his Octagon debut, ‘The Hangman’ is warning the UFC he intends to punt those plans, violently.

Hooker intends to “break” the UFC’s “new toy”

For years, Chandler was widely regarded to be one of the best lightweights outside of the UFC. In fact, the explosive wrestler was considered to be one of the best fighters, not signed to the UFC, period.

So, when Chandler closed out his Bellator deal this past summer and eventually signed with the UFC, it was a big deal. That was evidenced in the fact the UFC tapped Chandler to be an alternate fighter for the October bout between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje.

Well, due to Chandler’s accomplishments and abilities, the expectation was that the UFC would book him to fight a top-five or even a top-three contender for his debut. But, plans for a fight with Tony Ferguson never materialized, and fast forward to today, Chandler is fighting the #6 ranked Hooker.

Since news of the fight broke, Hooker spoke with SCMP MMA, and while discussing the booking, he said this (quotes via MMA Fighting).

“I think they were trying to get other people to take the fight is what the hold up was (laughs),” Hooker said.

“I heard real early on that they were trying to get Gaethje to take it. And then when Dana announced the fight Dana announced it like, ‘We were trying to get Oliveira to take the fight but he didn’t take it so now Hooker’s taking it.’

And then people asking me, ‘Oh, so it’s short notice?’ Nah bruv, I’ve been in camp for a while. (Laughs). I’m coming in ready for this. I got approached about this fight a while back.”

And then, while sharing his take on the UFC’s plans for Chandler, the New Zealand fighter said this.

“The danger lies in getting to the top five. If you were to put him against anyone else who’s come up in the UFC, like top-50, then a top-30, then a top-20, then a top-15 then his chances of losing skyrocket exponentially.

So the quicker they can get him to a title, the quicker they could market and sell him. So to me, you’re gonna give me the new toy?

I’m gonna break the new toy real quick. They invested a whole lot of money to get this guy out of his contract and get him over to the UFC and they’re gonna throw him in with me who’s like a bad stylistic matchup and I’m gonna break the toy in five minutes.

I can’t say I feel sorry for them (laughs).”

Reaction?

So, there are likely plenty of people who question whether Hooker will be able to take Chandler out inside of five minutes. Or, whether he’ll beat Chandler.

But, there’s no denying that if Hooker does score an emphatic win over Chandler, it will be a huge setback for the latter. In addition, it would certainly take the wind out of the UFCs promotional sail for Chandler too.

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