Chael Sonnen believes Dan Hooker is the most logical opponent for Tony Ferguson after the Dustin Poirier fight fizzled out.
The hope for the UFC is to keep Ferguson on UFC 254 and Sonnen believes Hooker should be the opponent.
“I think you have a couple of likely suspects,” Sonnen said while discussing potential Ferguson opponents in a video posted to his YouTube channel (via BJPENN). “Dan Hooker. Dan Hooker versus Tony Ferguson.”
For Sonnen, he believes Hooker deserves the fight as well.
“We’re in a sport in a space that is about being given an opportunity,” he said. “You are given nothing else in this sport except an opportunity. Could you imagine Hooker goes out there, he comes up short against Poirier, Poirier doesn’t want the opportunity [against Ferguson] for whatever reason, Hooker goes and takes it. Hooker ends up getting the opportunity even though he lost his previous match, because the guy that won the match doesn’t want it. That’s the way sports work. If you are in a tournament and you don’t show up to the mat, there is now a forfeit and that other person will move on.
“If I were to predict who will be called and offered that fight [with Ferguson]—it’s purely a prediction, I haven’t talked to anyone at all—I would like to go ahead and float the idea past you, see what you think of Ferguson versus Hooker.”
