UFC Fight Night: Poirier vs. Hooker
Saturday, June 27 – UFC Apex Facility, Las Vegas, Nevada
The weekly UFC shows continue on Saturday with a main event that is amongst the best the company has put on in the current climate. That is because the lightweight contest features a couple of best bout machine level fighters in Dustin Poirier and Dan Hooker in a fight that is as close to guaranteed action as will ever get.
This is Poirier’s return fight after the former interim lightweight champion went down to Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 242 in Abu Dhabi. Poirier (25-6 MMA, 17-5 UFC) is far from the only fighter to have been beaten by Nurmagomedov and he needs a big fight here to prove that he has another run in him to get back into the title picture.
This is likely to be a bout that is as much mental as it is physical for Poirier, especially considering he is facing a fighter in Dan Hooker (20-8 MMA, 10-4 UFC) who is in a similar spot to where Poirier was at this point last year, needing a win or two over established names to really make his mark. The fighter from New Zealand has been waiting over a decade for a spotlight like this, so expect him to throw everything he can at Poirier and fight like he has nothing to lose.
This really should be a great bout in what is UFC’s more interesting division. Poirier is the favorite at BetXChange and for good reason. His fights over the last few years have been absurd in their schedule strength and he has won more than he has lost. Add in the visa issues of Hooker and his trip to Las Vegas and I think that Poirier has the edge in both experience and acclimatization.
The co-main of Mike Perry and Mickey Gall is a weird one. Gall (6-2-0) has only had one professional fight outside of the UFC in a bizarre career path that accelerated him to his current position because CM Punk needed an opponent. Gall is trending up after picking up a unanimous decision win over Salim Touahri last time out. A win here would give the jiu-jitsu fighter some serious momentum going forwards.
Mike Perry (13-6-0) comes into this one having lost two in a row and six of his last 10 fights. A knockout defeat at the hands of Geoff Neal last time out followed a brutal fight against Vicente Luque where Perry was beaten up by the end of it. His form falling apart has caused Perry to make drastic changes – specifically firing his coach and his team so that the only person in his corner on Saturday will be his girlfriend to hand him water between rounds.
Perry will look to outstrike Gall, while Gall will be looking to get Perry to the mat where he can do the bulk of his work. Perry is the favorite here with BetXChange, but the madness in Perry’s corner – plus a strange injury that was revealed a few days ago – means that we aren’t at all against backing the underdog to win this fight.
