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A Lightweight fight between Al Iaquinta and Dan Hooker is on its way to UFC 243, as ESPN’s Ariel Helwani reports that the duo have verbally agreed to throw down at the upcoming pay-per-view (PPV) event, set to go down in Melbourne, Australia on October 5, 2019.
Hooker is coming off a first round knockout win over James Vick just a few weeks ago at UFC on ESPN 4 in San Antonio, Texas (see it again here). After the fight, Hooker called out any able and willing combatant to accept a fight with him, and it seems Iaquinta is the man for the job.
Al is looking to rebound from a tough loss to Donald Cerrone this past May in hopes of climbing back up to another shot at the 155-pound strap. Prior to coming up short to “Cowboy,” Iaquinta took a dominant victory over Kevin Lee, eight months after losing to Khabib Nurmagomedov in an interim title fight.
It’s an interesting matchup to say the least, as both men know how to bring it, as “Ragin’ Al” has won four of his last six fights via knockout, while Hooker has won his previous six by either ending his opponent via strikes or submitting them.
That said, this has the makings of an explosive 155-pound showdown.
UFC 243 will go down inside the 60,000-seat Marvel Stadium and will feature a Middleweight title unification match as division champion, Robert Whittaker, takes on interim champion, Israel Adesanya. In the co-main event, Holly Holm looks to get back into the win column when she faces Raquel Pennington for the second time.