Dan Hooker has revealed that Arman Tsarukyan broke his nose prior to their fight at UFC Qatar late last year.
Hooker (24-13 MMA, 14-9 UFC) and Tsarukyan (22-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) engaged in a heated confrontation at the ceremonial weigh-ins ahead of their main event bout in Doha last November, which resulted in Tsarukyan headbutting the New Zealander.
Hooker, who is preparing to face Benoit Saint-Denis (16-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) in the co-main event of UFC 325 in Sydney, Australia, this Saturday, revealed earlier this week the full extent of the injuries he suffered at the hands of the Armenian fighter.
“When (Arman) f***ing headbutted me at the weigh-in and broke my fucking nose, it pissed me right off,” Hooker said during his appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show on Monday. “But it's like, you can't get emotional at that stage of the fight. Mate, I was fuming. Like, I wanted that back, but you just have to brush it off. You have to put that in the back of your mind. But, yeah, I was steamed, bro. I was steamed. That threw me off for sure.”
Hooker was submitted by Tsarukyan in the second round before a routine post-fight checkup revealed the extent of his injuries.
“They took me to the hospital and scanned me after the fight, and they were like, 'Oh, you've got a fractured nose,'” he said. “I was like, 'C***,' that was the weigh-in. That had absolutely nothing to do with the fight.’
“And then, for this (week’s) fight, they were like, 'Oh, you've got (to get) medically cleared (because I had a fractured nose), you've got to medically clear it for this fight.’ And I just flat refused, brother. I was like, 'You already let me have one fight with it, and now you're going to stop me from having another fight with it.' I said, ‘that was from the weigh-in, brother. They had nothing at all to fight.’
