Dan Hooker comes clean about hand injury that forced him out of Justin Gaethje fight at UFC 313: "The Lords of War were not happy"

Dan Hooker talks about his injury that forced him ot of UFC 313. [Image courtesy: @danhangman on Instagram]

Dan Hooker recently opened up about his hand injury which prompted him to withdraw from the Justin Gaethje fight at UFC 313. Hooker voiced his displeasure over the unfortunate incident since their matchup was one of the most anticipated due to the two fighters' abilities to give their all inside the octagon.

Hooker was set to face Gaethje in a lightweight bout in the co-main event of UFC 313. The pay-per-view event will take place on March 8 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, 'The Hangman' revealed on his daughter's YouTube channel that he had broken his hand, which he later explained in an interview with Sky Sports New Zealand.

Hooker dislcosed that he fractured his hand while sparring with one of his training partner, saying:

''One of the paws is not doing too well. I was sparring last night, as I do, just letting some hooks go, just throwing some bombs down range, and I just caught one of the boys on the top of the dome with my knuckle. I don’t think too much of it but they sent me off to get a CT scan. Had a little CT scan and they told me my hand is fractured.''

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Hooker then expressed his disappointment over his withdrawal, saying:

''It’s unfortunate that it was this close. Obviously, gutted for all the fans that I know that were excited for this fight. That’s probably the main thing, I think. The Lords of War were not happy, and they took it away from you.”

Check out Dan Hooker's comments below:

Hooker (24-12) is on a three-fight win streak. In his recent octagon outing at UFC 305, the 35-year-old secured a split-decision victory over Mateusz Gamrot. Meanwhile, Gaethje lost his BMF title to Max Holloway at UFC 300 after suffering a devastating last-round knockout defeat.

Rafael Fiziev is ready to replace Dan Hooker at UFC 313

The entire MMA community was upset with the news of Dan Hooker pulling out of his bout with Justin Gaethje at UFC 313 next month. This opened a window of opportunity for many lightweight contenders to put forward their name as a short-term replacement.

One of them is Rafael Fiziev, who took to X and called for a rematch with Gaethje, writing: