Alex Hernandez will take on Olivier Aubin-Mercier at July’s UFC on FOX 30 event and explains why a fight with Dan Hooker never came to be.

Before three former world champions take the Octagon at July’s UFC on FOX 30 event in Calgary, fans will witness battle of up-and-coming lightweights in Alex Hernandez will take on Olivier Aubin-Mercier go down.

In a matchup first reported by FanSided MMA, the UFC officially announced last week that Hernandez will take on Aubin-Mercier on July 28. The event will take place at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

When the matchup was first reported, the vast majority of fans showed excitement and enthusiasm. Others asked the question, “What happened to Dan Hooker?”

After Hernandez had heard Hooker was throwing his name around, “The Great” fired back with an Instagram post warning Hooker to “stay out of the deep end.” Another post on social media followed, which lead to Hooker responding, asking the UFC matchmakers to make it happen.

In the end, Hooker will face Gilbert Burns at UFC 226 in July, while Hernandez will face “The Canadian Gangster” later on in the month. So, why did the fight between Hernandez and Hooker not come to fruition?

“There wasn’t anything from the big guys in the back as far as any developments on that,” Hernandez told FanSided MMA. “It was just something where I saw my name getting tossed around, so I decided to spread the fire a little bit. Nothing really came of it. There was never anything offered. It was just a back and forth, media embellishment and his own little internal hype squad embellishing it. But there wasn’t any talk from the UFC about that fight.

“Truthfully, I kind of ran it back and forth, egged it on a little bit, but I realized Dan wasn’t ranked and he became irrelevant to me,” Hernandez continued. “I didn’t really do anything besides a post and then I said something a little later on. He is not on the radar. He’s out of the league. I didn’t care to waste my time on it.”

Hernandez will bring a seven-fight winning streak into Calgary, including his most recent performance which got everyone’s attention. On a little over a week’s notice, the 25-year-old got the call to replace Bobby Green against Beneil Dariush at UFC 222. Hernandez made the most of his opportunity, knocking out Dariush in just 42-seconds.

Coming out of the “Performance of the Night” victory, Hernandez told FanSided MMA that he was only interested in competing against someone ranked above him, or worse case, someone in the top-15. He will get his wish on July 28.

“It was Sean Shelby’s idea,” Hernandez explained. “He’s the one that brought up ‘OAM’ to my manager. They ran it passed me — he just KO’d Dunham with a body shot (at UFC 223)– and it was perfect,” said Hernandez. “He’s on a good, four-fight win streak and, most importantly, he’s ranked. That’s what I wanted. The setting, being in Canada, is perfect so we’ll be on the main card. I was super happy about it. Anyone would’ve been fine with me but I just need them to be relevant so I can improve my value. ‘OAM’ is definitely going to do that more than Hooker does at this juncture in my career.”