Dan Hooker has left fans squirming after revealing a gruesome hand injury that forced him to withdraw from UFC 313.
The New Zealander was scheduled to meet Justin Gaethje in a thrilling co-main event this weekend, but pulled out from the bout following an injury that required surgery.
Gaethje now faces Azerbaijan’s Rafael Fiziev on the Las Vegas card, before Alex Pereira defends his light heavyweight strap against Magomed Ankalaev in the main event.
“BRB,” Hooker wrote this week on Instagram as he shared photos of him in hospital with his daughter.
The 35-year-old from Auckland then revealed graphic images of how his hand looked post-surgery, and it certainly got MMA fans talking.
One UFC fan took to X and said: “Damn, that looks gnarly.”
While another added: “That’s brutal man.”
Hooker, who made his UFC debut in 2014, was on a three-fight winning streak in Dana White‘s promotion heading into UFC 313.
He defeated Claudio Puelles at UFC 281 in November 2022, before securing a thrilling points win against Jalin Turner eight months later.
‘The Hangman’ then claimed a Fight of the Night bonus for his split decision victory over Mateusz Gamrot this past August in Australia.
A victory over the third-ranked UFC lightweight Gaethje could have propelled Hooker into title contention.
However, for now at least, those aspirations have been put to an immediate halt.
Dan Hooker’s last five fights
Undefeated in three
“One of the paws doesn’t look so well,” Hooker told Sky Sports New Zealand, speaking about how he injured his hand.
“I was sparring as I do, letting some hooks go, throwing bombs and I just caught one of the boys on top of the dome with my knuckle.”
Hooker then revealed that he didn’t think too much of his wounds at the time, but his team sent him for a CT scan and he was told his hand was fractured.
The Auckland native also, unsurprisingly, added he would have been more than happy to go ahead with his fight against Gaethje if it were up to him.
Hooker spent 13 months away from the Octagon after breaking his arm in his win over Turner at UFC 290 in July 2023.
Upon his return over one year later, ‘The Hangman’ had undergone a massive makeover that shocked fans around the world.
Hooker had spent some time in the tattoo parlour during his spell on the sidelines and returned with his chest and arms fully covered in ink.
One fan said the New Zealander looked like he ‘had an early midlife crisis’, but the UFC star was happy with his transformation.
“I just had to get it to a point where it looks like how I wanted it to look,” Hooker told The Mac Life last year.
“I was never just gonna get one tattoo and then [stop]. It’s art, man. It’s a piece of art. So, you gotta have a look like the picture. Everyone can see the picture, I can see where it’s going.
“I’m an all-or-nothing guy if you haven’t noticed. It p***** you off when you get like: ‘I got one leg done’ and I was like: ‘That looks stupid.’ I have to obviously do the next one.
“Then, do my arm and I was like, well, obviously I have to do my other arm. Then, I needed something in the middle, and I needed something at the top, so I needed something at the bottom.
“Everything has to be symmetrical about it. That’s obviously not finished, though it’s not perfectly symmetrical the way that I want it. But you can see where it’s going.”
Hooker then admitted tattoos are his new addiction – even though they most certainly hurt.
UFC fans are eagerly awaiting the 35-year-old’s return from injury to see what his next in his stellar fighting career.
