Dan Hooker will have to wait until the new year to return to the octagon after an arm injury has forced him to withdraw from his upcoming bout at UFC Austin.
Hooker was set to square off against Bobby Green in a rare five-round co-main event on the December 3 card, looking to back up his hard-fought win over Jalin Turner in July.
Following the win over Turner, Hooker had to have surgery to repair a broken arm; he reinjured the same arm during a sparring session at Auckland’s City Kickboxing gym on Monday night.
“It’s just one of those things. I’ve been kicked a thousand times in the last two months and he just got me on the right spot. It’s broken on the same spot as I broke it last time,” Hooker told the Herald.
“I just didn’t give it enough time to set. It probably didn’t need too much, just another month of lifting weights so it could set, but I just jumped straight into training camp which takes a toll on your body. It slowed down the recovery of the arm, and Bob’s your uncle. It just hadn’t set.”