UFC’s Dan Hooker claims Arman Tsarukyan broke his nose with pre-fight headbutt

Hooker was headbutted by Tsarukyan at their weigh-in in November, before losing their bout via submission

Dan Hooker has claimed he suffered a broken nose when Arman Tsarukyan headbutted him before their fight.

In November, Tsarukyan scored a second-round submission win over Hooker, as the UFC staged an event in Qatar for the first time.

Tsarukyan finished the New Zealander with an arm-triangle choke to cement his status as the UFC’s No 1-ranked lightweight, while Hooker’s three-fight win streak came to an end.

But there was drama at the pre-fight weigh-in, where Tsarukyan, 29, headbutted Hooker, 35. Hooker did not make much of the incident at the time, but now he has opened up on how it might have impacted him.

“I actually didn’t process [the loss] until I woke up in bed this morning,” Hooker told Uncrowned on Monday, speaking ahead of Saturday’s bout with Benoit Saint-Denis at UFC 325. “I kind of just kept compartmentalising it.

“It’s not something I really processed, and because I did get another fight so fast, you don’t really get into what went wrong. And it was f***ing when this c*** f***ing headbutted me at the weigh-in, and broke my f***ing nose.

“It pissed me right off, but 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 have to brush it off, put that in the back of your mind. But I was steamed, bro, I was steamed. That threw me off, for sure.”

Arman Tsarukyan (left) headbutting Dan Hooker at the weigh-ins for UFC Qatar (Dana White/Instagram)

Hooker clarified that he did not know his nose was broken until after the fight, saying: “They scanned me after the fight and took me to hospital. They were like: ‘You’ve got a fractured nose.’ [I thought:] ‘C***, that was the weigh-in, that had absolutely nothing to do with the fight.’

“Then, for this fight, they were like: ‘You’ve got to medically clear [the nose] for this fight,’ and I just flat refused, brother. You already let me have one fight with it, now you’re going to stop me from having another fight with it?

“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, then they just... Yeah, he got me. Kudos to him. I’m not even mad at Arman, it is what it is.”

Tsarukyan’s emphatic win over Hooker seemingly confirmed him as the next challenger for lightweight champion Ilia Topuria, but when the latter announced a brief break from MMA, the UFC booked an interim-title fight without Tsarukyan involved.

Instead, Justin Gaethje took on Paddy Pimblett for the interim belt on Saturday, outpointing the Liverpudlian to set up a clash with Topuria – and further delaying Tsarukyan’s potential title shot.

Hooker is aiming to get back to winning ways, after Tsarukyan ended his promising three-fight streak (Getty)

“I feel bad, I like Arman now,” Hooker said. “He’s won me over as a fan. That’s the saddest part about it: that the best years of his career are being wasted, bro. Wasted.

“He should be fighting Ilia. Who don’t want to see that? Let’s be real, let’s be honest – everyone put their honest hat on. After watching Paddy vs Gaethje, who the f** thinks Gaethje can beat Ilia?”

Some feel that Tsarukyan was overlooked for a place in Saturday’s title fight because of his headbutt on Hooker. Meanwhile, UFC president Dana White has hinted that Tsarukyan’s absence from the title picture is tied to an episode from 12 months ago.

In January 2025, the Armenian withdrew from a title shot against Islam Makhachev on one day’s notice, citing a back injury. Makhachev went on to submit Renato Moicano on short notice, before vacating the title and moving up to welterweight, where he claimed more gold. In the meantime, Topuria knocked out Charles Oliveira to win the vacant lightweight strap.

Ilia Topuria knocked out Charles Oliveira to win the vacant UFC lightweight belt in June (Getty Images)

While Tsarukyan’s future as a title challenger is unclear, the same applies to Pimblett in the wake of his one-sided loss to Gaethje. However, some fans may wish to see Pimblett vs Hooker next, regardless of how Hooker fares against Saint-Denis this weekend.

Pimblett made a vulgar comment about the Kiwi’s mother this month, and Hooker responded with a similar jibe at one of Pimblett’s deceased friends.