‘We Just Have To Get UFC On Board’
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
McGregor and Hooker may have agreed to fight. But it sounds like the UFC hasn’t agreed to anything.
Conor McGregor has a new dance partner in mind now that his long time wait-around Michael Chandler has moved on: Dan Hooker.
Hooker was in Marbella this weekend cornering The Mac Life reporter Oscar Willis to a first round TKO win over fellow MMA media member Ben “The Bane” Davis at BKFC Spain. That gave him some opportunities to chop it up with BKFC co-owner McGregor, and they had such a good time together they apparently decided to fight in the UFC.
McGregor started announcing the fight to press on Saturday: a fight in Saudi Arabia on February 1st. At first Hooker seemed a bit hesitant to play along seeing as he’s got actual fight offers from UFC matchmakers to consider, but in a new interview with Submission Radio he was all in.
Now all they need is for the UFC to agree.
“We’re kindred spirits, as you can say, we get along quite well,” Hooker told Submission Radio of McGregor. “I think we’re both very similar. There’s a lot of similarities there.”
“We just spoke in the ring, and yeah, I’m on board. He’s on board. We just need to get the UFC on board and we’ll get this thing across the line.”
While it seems simple enough that the UFC would want to get their No. 1 star back in the cage as soon as they can, there’s business issues slowing everything down. McGregor has just two fights left on his current contract and the UFC may be slow-playing him in an effort to get him to re-sign. And if he doesn’t? Well, that works out for them too because they’d rather have two McGregor fights on offer as they hammer out a new multi-billion dollar broadcast deal in early 2025.
How do you guys think this conversation ended? @TheNotoriousMMA @danthehangman #BKFCSpain pic.twitter.com/9CkX1aD1nr
— Helen Yee (@HelenYeeSports) October 12, 2024
What they’re not going to do is put Conor McGregor on a Saudi Arabia Fight Night card. That would upset their Abu Dhabi investors. It would upset ESPN, who bought the right to sell UFC pay-per-views with Conor McGregor on them. And it would hinder the UFC’s ability to earn massive gate money, something they care about a lot when it comes to “Notorious” fights.
Fortunately, Dan Hooker has other more realistic possibilities when it comes to his next match.
”I don’t think there’s a fight fan on the face of the planet that doesn’t want to see me and Justin Gaethje mix it up,” he said. “So that’s another incredible option that I have there. And I would love any of those fights. There’s not a fight on the face of the world that I would turn down.”
“So to have two of those names be on the front of my list — Conor McGregor and Justin Gaethje — is, yeah, exciting times.”
