Dan Hooker has been forced out of his UFC On ESPN 52 co-main event fight with Bobby Green in Austin, Texas on December 2nd due to a broken arm.
Hooker had previously broken his arm at UFC 290 during a split-decision win over Jalin Turner in July and in hindsight he believes he should have taken longer to heal from that before returning to action.
“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 New Zealand 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 just hadn’t set.”
Since the news emerged Green has stated he wants a replacement to step up on short notice to fight him, and so far the likes of Rafael dos Anjos, Jared Gordon and Terrence McKinney have all signalled their interest in the match-up, though the UFC has yet to make an official decision on the matter.
As things stands UFC On ESPN 52 proceeds with a card headlined by a lightweight fight between Beneil Dariush and Arman Tsarukyan, while the likes of Rob Font vs. Deiveson Figueiredo, Sean Brady vs. Kelvin Gastelum and Miesha Tate vs. Julia Avila ensure that it’s still a solid line-up going by recent non-PPV standards.
