Dan Hooker Reveals Injury Sustained From Arman Tsarukyan Headbutt

After being on the receiving end of a headbutt from Arman Tsarukyan before UFC Qatar last November, Dan Hooker revealed he actually suffered an injury from the incident.

Following the incident, Tsarukyan submitted Hooker by way of arm triangle choke in the 2nd round of their main event contest on fight night. Many feel that following this win, and given his fight history, Tsarukyan should have been competing for the interim lightweight title this past weekend at UFC 324, but it is rumored that the pre-fight face-off headbutt incident with Hooker led to him being passed over for the opportunity.

Instead, UFC 324 ended with Justin Gaethje earning the interim 155-pound title in a hard-fought unanimous decision win over Paddy Pimblett.

To start this week, Dan Hooker appeared on the Ariel Helwani Show, where he revealed that the headbutt before his match with Tsarukyan fractured his nose and led to a psychological disadvantage in the fight.

“When this c— f—— headbutted me at the weigh-in and broke my f—— nose, it pissed me right off. But it’s like, you can’t get emotional at that stage of the fight,” Hooker said.

“Obviously, mate, I was fuming. 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 steaming, bro. That threw me off for sure. They scanned me after the fight, took me to the hospital, and said I had a fractured nose. It had nothing to do with the fight – I had to get medically cleared for this fight, but I just flat-out refused [LAUGHS].

“The broken nose didn’t bother me [in the fight], not a physical thing, just more mental,” Hooker continued. “Getting a one-up on you before the fight…but kudos to him, he got it.”

(h/t BJPenn.com)