Dan Hooker willing to welcome Usman Nurmagomedov to UFC because 'no one else will'
· Yahoo Sports
Dan Hooker is no stranger to welcoming highly touted champions from other organizations.
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Hooker (24-14 MMA, 14-10 UFC) was ex-Bellator champion Michael Chandler's octagon debut in 2021, but the fight didn't go his way. Now he draws former two-division KSW champion Salahdine Parnasse (23-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC) in Saturday's UFC Fight Night 287 (Paramount+) main event at Accor Arena in Paris.
With rumblings of PFL lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov (22-0) potentially joining the UFC, Hooker is willing to put his hand up for that fight, too.
"It's the same thing as when I fought Chandler. It's the same thing with this Parnasse guy," Hooker told Submission Radio. "It'll be the same thing with Usman. No one else will take the fight. ... You think Ilia Topuria's going to take that risk of fighting an unranked non-UFC fighter? No one else wants to take the risk.
"It's the same reason why I was the guy to fight Chandler. It's the same reason why they're paying me money to fight Parnasse is because none of these other guys in the division want to risk it for the biscuit. So they call up Dan Hooker, they offer him a bit of danger money, and he welcomes these boys to the big leagues."
Hooker likes the position of spoiling someone's debut, and with Nurmagomedov, it'll have even more meaning.
"That would be the exciting thing for me with that fight is you would get another chance to step in there and go up against a legacy," Hooker said. "Going to a guy's hometown and ruining his debut, that puts a little fuzzy feeling in my stomach."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Dan Hooker willing to welcome Usman Nurmagomedov to UFC because 'no one else will'