COACH | Dan Hooker Willing To ‘Jump In’ Against Tony Ferguson

Lightweight contender Dan Hooker is more than willing to replace Dustin Poirier and fight Tony Ferguson according to his coach Eugene Baremen. ‘The Diamond’ was supposed to square off against Ferguson at UFC 254 on October 24 but that fight has fallen through as Poirier failed to come to financial terms with the UFC for the bout.

Speaking to Submission Radio The Head Coach from Auckland’s City Kickboxing revealed Hooker is willing to square off against Ferguson at UFC 254 although he would advise against it, he said.

“October is a bit early for us, otherwise we would jump in there straight away for sure. But if they can push it back. Dan just got off concussion protocol now, so of this week. So, he’s only just started back training. So, obviously October might be a hard push. He would do it. I would have to talk him out of it, but he would probably do it one hundred percent. But Dan’s just back now, he’s getting fit again, it’s good to have him back in the gym. So, yeah, if they can’t come to terms, and it sounds like they haven’t come to terms, then we’ll jump in there and fight Tony for sure.” 

Hooker is coming off a loss to Poirier last time out. The two lightweight fighters went to war over five round with the former interim lightweight champion edging it out on the judge’s scorecards.

‘El Cuccy’ also suffered defeat in his last outing. The TUF champion snapped his 12-fight win streak against late-replacement opponent Justin Gaethje at UFC 249 in May. Ferguson was originally set to finally square off against lightweight king Khabib Nurmagomedov before the coronavirus pandemic derailed those plans. The 36-year-old instead squared off against Gaethje who put on a striking clinic before ultimately getting the fifth round TKO victory over Ferguson.

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