Dan Hooker is confident that a win over Dustin Poirier this evening will leapfrog him ahead of Conor McGregor and setup a future lightweight title shot.

‘The Hangman’ will square off with ‘The Diamond’ in tonight’s UFC on ESPN 12 headliner and believes that a victory will setup a title fight with the winner of September’s Justin Gaethje vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov lightweight title fight.

“That fight is set, Gaethje and Khabib. That fight is going to happen in September, and I’m the next guy in line,” Dan Hooker said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “That will be a four fight streak over the No. 3, No. 6, No. 6 and another ranked fighter. Those are top-ranked guys.”

‘The Hangman’ continued by suggesting that he would not be happy if Conor McGregor received the next lightweight title shot ahead of him, this of course barring that he defeats Poirier this evening.

“The next guy in line would be Conor McGregor, who looking back at it now, has a win over the No. 12 [ranked fighter] in the division. So when you compare resumes, it would be pretty difficult to hand him a title shot over me without me kicking up a fuss.”

Dan Hooker will enter tonight’s UFC on ESPN 12 main event with Dustin Poirier on a three-fight winning streak, his latest being a split decision victory over Paul Felder in February.

Meanwhile, Conor McGregor has not competed since scoring a sensational first round knockout victory over Donald Cerrone at January’s UFC 246 event.

The former two-division UFC champion, McGregor, recently announced his retirement from fighting citing a lack of options in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

It remains to be seen if the Irish superstar will remain retired this time around.

What do you think of the comments from Dan Hooker regarding Conor McGregor? Share your thoughts in the comments section PENN Nation!

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on June 27, 2020