Dan Hooker is driven to spoil the party at UFC 257. After weeks of negotiation, UFC lightweight contender Hooker (20-9) has finally put pen to paper and will fight former Bellator champion Michael Chandler (21-5) in the co-main event on January 23 in Abu Dhabi. The 34-year-old American Chandler played backup for the lightweight title fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje on Fight Island at UFC 254 in October, which exhibited his high standing despite only signing with the promotion a month earlier. “The quicker they can get him to the title, the quicker they can market him and sell him,” No 6-ranked Hooker told SCMP MMA. “They’re gonna give me the new toy. I’m gonna break the new toy real quick.” “Father time in this sport is not your friend,” the 30-year old New Zealand native added. “They want him to come in and look like the man. So if he whitewashes a top five, top four, top three opponent, then people will start saying, ‘title shot’. “They invested a whole lot of money to get this guy over to the UFC. And they are going to throw him in with me who is a bad stylistic match-up. I’m gonna break the toy in five minutes. I can’t say I feel sorry for them.” Adesanya can become UFC pound-for-pound No 1, MMA ‘GOAT’ in 2021 Chandler told ESPN this week he also recognised the Hooker match-up was much more difficult stylistically, compared to other top lightweights like Tony Ferguson, Justin Gaethje and Dustin Poirier. “I’m interested to see what he does,” the City Kickboxing captain added. “He usually just comes out guns blazing, on the front foot, pressure. But I like that – you’re gonna come to me, dip your head, shoot in for takedowns. “You’re taking a lot of the monkey work out of it for me. It’s like picking someone off until they start trying to get in your face. If he’s just going to do it off the bat, I’ve just got to set the traps, throw a few landmines down there and see what he runs into.”