Fantasy matchmaking in MMA is very fun. You can get stuck thinking for minutes upon minutes of all the dream match-ups that can be made.
On Monday, UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and UFC lightweight contender Dan Hooker revealed their dream match-ups for every division in the UFC.
Dream match-ups
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In the strawweight division, Adesanya wants to see former strawweight champion Rose Namajunas vs. Mackenzie Dern. Izzy added, “I like to see that because of jujitsu, and I know Rose can rock jujitsu, but with striking, Rose might have her on that. That’s why I want to see it.”
Hooker wants to see the current strawweight champion Carla Esparza defend her title against Zhang Weili, which might happen sooner than later.
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In the flyweight division, Adesanya crossed divisions and booked the trilogy between Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko. He added that he felt Shevchenko won the second fight.
Hooker wants to see ‘King’ Casey O’Neil vs. Maycee Barber. “I think Casey’s been calling her out as well. It’s like two of the best prospects in the division, and that’s a good fight to see who puts herself in the mix,” Hooker said.
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Adesanya wants to see ‘Sugar’ Sean O’Malley vs. Cory Sandhagen in the bantamweight division. “I like that fight just because they’re both tall, long for the weight class, and unorthodox with their striking. [They are] very intelligent with their striking. And if it goes to the ground, there’ll be both competent there, but striking-wise, I’d be cool to see,” Adesanya said.
Hooker wants to see a clash between two former champions, Frankie Edgar vs. Dominick Cruz. He said he thinks Cruz wouldn’t accept it because he doesn’t want to be Edgar’s retirement fight, but as a fan, Hook would love to see it.
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In the featherweight division, Adesanya wants to see former featherweight champion Max Holloway vs. Bryce Mitchell.
“I liked that just because Bryce Mitchell is the best rapper in the UFC. It’d be a cool fight because Max would just stay on the outside and pick him apart. But fu*king Bryce, I did not expect him to drop Edson Barboza the way he did. He outstruck Barboza. But then when he gets to the ground, it could be dangerous for Max, but we’ll see,” Adesanya said.
Hooker wants to see Holloway vs. Giga Chikadze, a fight that Chikadze really wanted. “Like that will be a pretty cool striking fight. I just want to see how that plays out. Max walks through a lot of people, but Giga’s got the type of power you can’t just kind of march forward.”
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In the lightweight division, Adesanya wants to see a rematch between Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler.
Hooker, on the other hand, wants to see Gaethje vs. Rafael Fiziev, which makes a ton of sense and is a fight that Fiziev called for.
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For the welterweight division, Adesanya first said he wanted to see Leon Edwards vs. Khamzat Chimaev but then quickly changed his mind to Chimaev vs. Shavkat Rakhmonov, which is an awesome fight.
Hooker wants Jorge Masvidal vs. Gilbert Burns, which is kind of rumored for UFC 281 in New York later this year.
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The champion’s own division, he called his upcoming fight with Alex Pereira a dream match-up.
Hooker matched up Paulo Costa vs. Darren Till, which would absolutely have the best build-up ever. Both Adesanya and Hooker pick Till to win.
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In the light heavyweight division, Adesanya wants to see current champion Jiri Prochazka fight Aleksandar Rakic, which could have happened a lot sooner if Rakic hadn’t blown his knee out in June.
Hooker matched up two-time title challenger Dominick Reyes vs. Dustin Jacoby. “It’s just a good striking fight. I like Jacoby; I think his second [UFC] run…yeah, he’s been on,” Hooker said.
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Finally, in the heavyweight division, Adesanya wants to see former interim champion Ciryl Gane vs. Tom Aspinall.
“That’s the heavyweight fight I want to see because, for me, Ciryl Gane was the guy that was the biggest threat to Francis [Ngannou] and still is, but then Francis has handled him. It was beautiful,” Adesanya said. “I’m a big fan of both guys. Big fan of Ciryl, but Tom Aspinall is the guy. I like his style, so him vs. Ciryl would be a beautiful, athletic, intelligent heavyweight fight.”
Hooker picked his fellow countryman Tai Tuivasa vs. the current champ Ngannou and simply said, “Them two…they’re just gonna swing.”
