UFC lightweight contender Dan Hooker believes that the hype surrounding Michael Chandler heading into UFC 257 is justified.

Hooker has a huge opportunity in front of him this Saturday night with the belief being that if he can overcome Chandler in a dominant manner, there’s a chance he could go on to fight for the Lightweight Championship sooner rather than later.

During a pre-fight interview, Hooker wasn’t shy when speaking about the hype surrounding Chandler and everything he’s accomplished up to this point.

“I’d never watched Michael Chandler fight,” Hooker said. “I definitely knew who he was and what he’d achieved in Bellator, I knew he was a champ, I’d seen highlight reels – like the Eddie Alvarez war, but hadn’t really studied him or watched any fights. Once I did, as I say, I learnt where that respect came from and that hype and that excitement. It’s definitely warranted, I believe like the third fight of his career was in Bellator and he’s been fighting there ever since. So that’s a high level, he’s been fighting world class lightweights for a lot longer than a lot of other people in this sport.”

Hooker has also spoken about how he could really benefit from the fact that he’s taking a significant risk by taking on such a high profile newcomer that very few others wanted to fight.

“That’s like in the back of my head, what is going to come from this,” Hooker told MMA Junkie. “But I definitely know that something big is going to come from this because it’s high risk and this is the sport of people that take the risks get the rewards. They went down the list trying to find an opponent for Chandler.

“No one wanted to take the risk, and this is the way this sport works: You take the risk. I flew over here. I’m fighting the unknown fighter. I’m taking the risk, so that warrants getting the reward for that, right? Whatever that may be.”