Chase Hooper has his next assignment taking on 62-fight veteran Clay Guida in a lightweight matchup added to UFC 310, which takes place on Dec. 7 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed the news to MMA Fighting on Wednesday. News of the fight was first reported on Twitter on Tuesday.
Since returning to lightweight, Hooper has gone undefeated with three wins in a row including submission victories over both Viacheslav Borschev and Jordan Leavitt in his past two appearances. His return in December marks Hooper’s fifth anniversary with the UFC where he’s amassed a 6-3 record overall while becoming a favorite amongst fans.
As for Guida, the 42-year-old UFC mainstay returns to action for the first time in almost exactly a year after his last appearance in December 2023 ended with a decision loss to Joaquim Silva. That marked a second loss in a row for Guida after he also fell to Rafa Garcia in April 2023.
Overall, Guida has gone 2-3 in his past five bouts but the seemingly ageless lightweight never slows down and now he’ll look to get back on track against Hooper in December.
UFC 310 serves as the final pay-per-view card of the year for the promotion with a main event still to be determined.
Back in June 2020, when the world was at the height of a global pandemic, Dustin Poirierand Dan Hooker went to war for five rounds in a Fight of the Year candidate. Poirier won the epic fight via unanimous decision (watch highlights).
Since that fight, their careers have taken insane ups and downs, from big wins to heartbreaking losses to wild knockouts and gigantic paydays.
Now, Hooker has hinted that he wants to run it back.
On Twitter today (Wed., Sept 25, 2024), Hooker wrote “rematch.”
Rematch.
— Dan Hangman Hooker (@danthehangman) September 25, 2024
The one-word tweet is most likely a response to Poirier’s tweet yesterday, “Trilogy?” which hints at a third fight with Justin Gaethje. Or maybe a proper trilogy with Conor McGregor, even though it would technically be their fourth.
Trilogy?
— The Diamond (@DustinPoirier) September 24, 2024
However, when Poirier got wind of Hooker requesting a rematch, “The Diamond” wrote, “You don’t really want that @danthehangman.”
You Don’t really want that @danthehangman
— The Diamond (@DustinPoirier) September 25, 2024
After Poirier’s last fight against Islam Makhachev, which he lost via submission (watch highlights), the future UFC Hall of Famer flirted with retirement; however, after his tweets, it looks like he is coming back for a swan song … and a fight with Hooker would be violent and epic.
Hooker is coming off a bloody split decision win over Mateusz Gamrot at UFC 305 and is ranked No. 5 in the Lightweight division.
Benoit Saint Denis | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
UFC Paris goes down this weekend, headlined by a lightweight fight between Benoit Saint Denis and Renato Moicano. Who will win this main event matchup, and what about the rest of the action on this 14-fight card? No Bets Barred breaks it all down.
This week, host Jed Meshew is joined by Mike Heck to discuss all the bouts taking place in the City of Light. Topics debated include Moicano’s prospects at upsetting Saint Denis, Brendan Allen’s continued rise up the middleweight ranks, a possibly ill-fated UFC debut, and which underdog are live on the undercard.
All that and more on this week’s episode.
Tune in for episode 101 of No Bets Barred.
New episodes of the No Bets Barred podcast drop every Wednesday and are available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you find your favorite podcasts. The latest episode can be heard below.
UFC 306 at Sphere in Las Vegas may have been one of the most expensive cards to produce but the gamble paid off.
On Tuesday, TKO Group Holdings revealed that the event headlined by Sean O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili ended up as the highest grossing card in UFC history across several major metrics.
First and foremost, UFC 306 produced a $ 22 million live gate, which smashed the previous record at $ 17.7 million when UFC 205 landed at Madison Square Garden in New York for the first time back in 2016. UFC CEO Dana White previously revealed that the show cost over $ 20 million to produce so the live gate alone covers those costs.
UFC 306 also served as the highest grossing single event held at Sphere since the massive $ 2.3 billion arena first opened in 2023.
Meanwhile, UFC 306 also produced the highest grossing sponsorship sales for the company, which included a marquee branding sponsorship with Riyadh Season — the Saudi Arabia funded celebration headed up by Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of the country’s General Entertainment Authority.
Additional records were set for the highest grossing sales for VIP experiences, which is handled through On Location — an event service company owned by Endeavor, the primary shareholder in TKO Group Holdings.
UFC also touted the event for having the highest grossing merchandise sales in company history as well.
Despite all the success produced by UFC 306 at Sphere, TKO Group Holdings’ executives and White have both said the event was “one and done.” While the cost to produce a show there plays some part in not returning to Sphere, the UFC also maintains an exclusive agreement with MGM properties in Las Vegas, which is why all major pay-per-views are held at T-Mobile Arena — an MGM owned venue.
It was only after MGM booked a Canelo Alvarez fight at T-Mobile Arena that same weekend that White was able to break free from that deal for the one-night only card held at Sphere, which is owned by the Dolan family — the same company that owns properties like Madison Square Garden and the NBA’s New York Knicks.
Chris Eubank Jr. and Frank Warren | Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images
Chris Eubank Jr. laid into Frank Warren, Eddie Hearn, and almost every other promoter in boxing Wednesday afternoon.
Eubank faces Kamil Szeremeta on the undercard of the upcoming Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol pay-per-view in October, but at the London press conference for the event, Eubank’s harshest words were for boxing promoters Frank Warren, Kalle Sauerland, and Eddie Hearn.
Back in July, the former IBO super-middleweight champion signed a promotional deal with Boxxer, eschewing some of the bigger promoters in the sport, and when asked about it, Eubank didn’t mince words.
Just telling it how it is #RiyadhSeason pic.twitter.com/CbVgHC66FH
— Chris Eubank Jr (@ChrisEubankJr) September 25, 2024
“Why Boxxer? Because every other promoter out here is a scumbag,” Eubank said. “That’s why. You’ve got Frank Warren behind me, he’s been lying and cheating his way through boxing for the last couple decades, sued me for a couple hundred thousand a few years ago, so obviously I was never going to go with him. The guy is a scumbag.
“Kalle Sauerland [Eubank’s former promoter] had me locked up in a terrible contract for the last few years, squeezing money out of me at every opportunity. Scumbag.
“Eddie Hearn, Frank Smith, they did everything they could to try and make this fight against Conor Benn still go ahead after knowing that he was on steroids. Scumbags.
“I would say the only promoter that I know for sure isn’t a scumbag is his excellency Turki Alalshikh. This is a man who isn’t trying to take money from fighters. He isn’t trying to use lawyers and accountants to lock fighters up in slave contracts.”
Alalshikh is Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority of Saudi Arabia, and has invested significant funds into boxing in recent years, a move which his detractors claim serves to sportswash the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the global stage.
Unsurprisingly, Warren — who was in attendance along with Hearn — did not take kindly to Eubank’s comments. Warren previously promoted Eubank and later sued him for breach of contract, and the British promoter said he’s ready to get his legal team involved again for Eubank’s inflammatory statements.
“The bottom line of it is, it was very simple, he was sued by me for a legal breach of a contract and I was successful in suing him and he paid substantial damages,” Warren told talkSPORT after the press conference. “What he can’t accept is what’s legal and what’s not. And as regarding what he’s just said, I’m going to keep it short and sweet: he’s gonna get sued again for the comments that he’s made publicly…
“He will be sued and he will have a problem over that and anybody else who says it, they can get in that queue.”
**UPDATE**
A few hours after the press conference, Eubank released a statement apologizing and retracting his comments. Warren simultaneously released a statement to the retraction, accepting Eubank’s apology.
A statement from Chris Eubank Jr.@Queensberry pic.twitter.com/1IV7yHhvRA
— BOXXER (@boxxer) September 25, 2024
“Following today’s press conference for the historic Riyadh Season event on October 12th, I would like to retract my inaccurate statements and offer my apologies to Frank Warren, Eddie Hearn and Kalle Sauerland,” Eubank said. “I now wish to focus purely on boxing and preparing for a huge fight in Riyadh next month.”
“I accept Chris’s apology and retraction. I too have said things before and apologize to him also if any criticism of him has upset him in the past,” Warren stated. “I look forward to seeing him compete on this huge Riyadh Season card. We look ahead to some potentially massive bouts in the future.”
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