UFC 267, Islam Makhachev vs. Dan Hooker – Fight Predictions & Analysis

In Fight Island, UFC is going to make massive fireworks for MMA fans. Not only 2 title fights are highly anticipated, but there are also lots of bouts where is some bad blood between the fighters.

A lightweight bout between Islam Makhachev and Dan Hooker is one of those fights, which MMA fans MUST see.

Islam Makhachev is known as the "Next Khabib," and he does not have any problem. Already 30 years old fighter, he has earned 9 victories in the UFC and suffered loss only once, via KO in the first round. Currently, he has been on 8 winning streaks since 2016. In 2021 he already fought twice and earned two submission victories. Out of his 20 victories, he earned 3 of them via KO and 9 via submissions. Firstly he was supposed to fight with BJJ fighter former lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos, but the Brazilian was forced to fight due to injury.

 Dan Hooker is always ready to save the show, and only 2 days after his amazing performance, he took the fight against Islam and replaced Brazilian. His last appearance was just a month ago against Nasrat Haqparast and earned a unanimous decision victory. In his last 11 fights, he lost 3 times against Edson Barboza, Dustin Poirier, and Michael Chandler. Well, Chandler has good wrestling skills, but all of them served Dan's defeat in striking. But he earned victories against grapplers like Al Iaquinta, Gilbert Burns, Jim Miller.

Islam is opening this bout as the huge favorite with the odd 1.13 and Dan Hooker's win has the odd of 6.5. but please don't get confused by that. There is lots of hype around Islam because he is the sparring partner of Khabib Nurmagomedov and has the same fighting style. However, in his 9 victories, no one of the rivals was very top. No one of them was at the same level as Dan Hooker is.

 As Dan Hooker says, he can submit or KO anyone, but I don't think he will KO or submit Islam.

 Let me share my opinion. I think that Dan Hooker will land really good punches, and there will be some blood on Islam's face, but Islam will takedown him and control him on the ground. Islam does not have some special ground game or submission game; he controls rivals, gets them tired, and then finishes them. I don't think that he will finish Dan on the ground via submission, but Islam will earn unanimous decision victory, which has the odd 2.0.

 But if you are a guy like me who does not trust such a hype favorite and believes in "Dog Fighters" like Dan Hooker, you can make a little, minimal bet on Hooker's victory, which has the odd of 6.5, and earning early victory of Dan Hooker has the odd of 10. So maybe this odd is worthy of a bit of a bet.

 But in the main ticket, I would bet on Makhachev's unanimous decision victory.