If Dan Hooker (left) can beat Michael Chandler (right) today, a fight against Conor McGregor could beckon. Photo / Getty Images
If Dan Hooker (left) can beat Michael Chandler (right) today, a fight against Conor McGregor could beckon. Photo / Getty Images
Fighting returns to Yas Island in Abu Dhabi at UFC 257 as it also is the return of Conor McGregor.
Main event
In the main event, Irish superstar McGregor (22-4) will take on No 2-ranked Dustin Poirier in a rematch of their 2014 bout, while reigning division champion Khabib Nurmagomedov is expected to be cage side.
The winner will be one fight away from regaining the lightweight title both men have held in recent years.
McGregor now struggles to conjure the trash-talking, flamboyant persona that once made him more famous than anything he had yet achieved in the octagon. Now financially secure and raising a young family, McGregor still lives a wild life at times, but it is cushioned by a growing sense of his finite time left in sports — despite his brash pronouncements of youth — and his evaluation of his legacy.
Conor McGregor, left, kicks Dustin Poirier during their 2014 fight. Photo / AP
"All the money, all the belts, all that comes and that goes," McGregor said. "You know what lives on? A fighter's highlights. Look at Roy Jones Jr.'s highlights, Mike Tyson's highlights. I still look at them today. Ali's highlights. I want my highlight reel to be like a movie. That's what I'm after. I'm looking to get in and perform and put on amazing highlights that I can sit as an old man with my son, and just watch back and just enjoy life."
When McGregor knocked out veteran welterweight Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone in just 40 seconds last January, he seemed set for a ferocious return to the sport he had largely neglected for the previous three years. McGregor spoke of wanting to fight four times in 2020, culminating in another shot at lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.
The pandemic understandably curtailed those plans.
Despite dropping 15 pounds from his last fight, McGregor appears comfortable and healthy at 155 pounds, where he has won just one fight in his career, beating Eddie Alvarez in 2016 to become the first fighter in UFC history to hold two division titles simultaneously.
McGregor and Poirier were even smaller — two up-and-coming featherweights — when they met in September 2014 in the third-billed bout at UFC 178. McGregor stopped Poirier just 1:46 into the opening round, landing a big left hook to the ear that ended the action swiftly.
Poirier (26-6) could have been crushed by the loss, particularly while he watched McGregor's ascent. Instead, he won nine of his next 11 fights, even capturing the interim lightweight title for 4 1/2 months in 2019 with an impressive win over Max Holloway.
Poirier is among the most durable and most successful UFC fighters of his generation, ranking 10th in the promotion's history with 18 UFC victories and seventh with 11 post-fight bonuses. A ferocious striker with a high work rate, he has six knockout victories as a lightweight.
Kiwi on the card
The spotlight also shines on Dan Hooker, it will present an opportunity like none he has had in his UFC career to date.
The No 6-ranked lightweight will meet highly touted new signing Michael Chandler in the co-main event on Fight Island, putting his place in the division on the line for a shot at something greater.
Hooker was the UFC's third choice of opponent for Chandler's debut fight with the promotion. Chandler said earlier in the week that the UFC wanted to put him in against a top five-level opponent straight away, and UFC president Dana White suggested in December they were working on that opponent being former interim champion Justin Gaethje.
Dan Hooker of New Zealand kicks Dustin Poirier in their lightweight fight last June. Photo / Getty
When that didn't happen, White confirmed they had offered the fight to No 3-ranked Charles Oliveira, who turned the fight down as he fought in December and did not want to cut the weight on short notice.
"The only reason I'm here is because everyone ahead of me turned the fight down," Hooker said.
"They've been coming up with a bunch of excuses. Ol' Charlie Olives (Oliveira) saying he can't make the weight ... I've got broomsticks thicker than that boy."
A wrestler by trade, Chandler shapes up as a favourable stylistic match-up for Hooker. However, the American packs plenty of power and has developed a forward pressure striking attack which has seen him score knockout wins in his last two fights.
Hooker said he was expected a characteristically fast start from Chandler and was excited for the challenge, knowing an impressive win would put him one step closer to a title shot and could potentially set up to a future date with Conor McGregor.
"I bet if (Chandler) could have picked anyone, it wouldn't have been me," Hooker said. "I'm a long, tall guy and my game is built around defending wrestlers.
"I'm expecting by the end of that first five minutes we're going to know how this thing's going to play out. I'm expecting him to come at me and I'm expecting a fast start, but I'm not one to back down to a challenge."
How can I watch the card?
Catch the preliminary bouts live on ESPN on Sky Sport and Sky Sport Now, with the $34.95 pay-per-view main card on Sky Arena and Sky Sport Now from 4pm.
Full card
Men's lightweight bout - Conor McGregor v Dustin Poirier Men's lightweight bout - Dan Hooker v Michael Chandler Women's flyweight bout - Jessica Eye v Joanne Calderwood Men's middleweight bout - Andrew Sanchez v Makhmud Muradov Women's strawweight bout - Amanda Ribas v Marina Rodriguez Men's middleweight bout - Makhmud Muradov v Andrew Sanchez Men's lightweight bout - Arman Tsarukyan v Matt Frevola Men's middleweight bout -Brad Tavares v Antonio Carlos Junior Women's bantamweight bout - Sara McMann v Julianna Pena Men's light heavyweight bout -Khalil Rountree v Marcin Prachnio Men's featherweights bout - Movsar Evloev v Nik Lentz Men's flyweight bout - Zhalgas Zhumagulov v Amir Albazi
