Dan Hooker reveals Arman Tsarukyan's faceoff headbutt seriously injured him

Published 4 hours ago
Source: sports.yahoo.com

The UFC wasn't happy with Arman Tsarukyan's headbutt – and it turns out neither was Dan Hooker considering the damage it caused.

On Monday, Hooker (24-13 MMA, 14-9 UFC) revealed the headbutt during UFC Fight Night 265 faceoffs in November caused more damage than it may have appeared. Hooker said Tsarukyan (23-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) broke his nose with the blow.

"When this c*nt f*cking headbutted me at the weigh-ins and broke my f*cking nose, it pissed me right off," Hooker told "The Ariel Helwani Show." "But it's like, you can't get emotional at that stage of the fight. You're obviously ... mate, I was fuming. I wanted that back, but you just had to brush it off. You just have to put that in the back of your mind. But I was steamed by it. I was steamed. That threw me off for sure."

Hooker said the injury went undetected until after his second-round submission loss to Tsarukyan in Doha, Qatar. A scan resulted in a fractured nose diagnosis – and served as a roadblock to his next booking for a fight Saturday vs. Benoit Saint Denis at UFC 325.

"They scanned me after the fight," Hooker said. "They took me to the hospital and just, like, scanned me after the fight and they're like, 'Oh, you've got a fractured nose.' I was like, 'C*nt, that was the weigh-in.' It had absolutely nothing to do with the fight. And then for this fight, they're like, 'You've got to be medically clear because you have a fractured nose. You've got to medically clear for this fight.' I just flat refused, brother. I was like, 'You've 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.' That had nothing to do with the fight. In what world can you smoke a guy's nose at the weigh-in and ... yeah, it got me. Kudos to him. Credit to him. I'm not even mad at Arman. I didn't know that there was no commission."

Hooker said the broken nose did not bother him during the fight, nor did it play into the result. He also seems to hold no ill-will toward Tsarukyan, despite the brutal shot.

"Nah, nah, nah," Hooker said. "I've broken my nose so many times. It didn't bother me like a physical thing. It's more mental thing. Like, a guy getting one-up on you at that stage of the fight. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kudos to him. He got it."

Oh, and if there's one thing Hooker hadn't considered in the midst of the situation, it was pulling out of the fight.

"F*ck no," Hooker said.

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Dan Hooker reveals Arman Tsarukyan's headbutt seriously injured him

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