Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight veteran Dan Hooker won't be rushing his return to the Octagon this time around.
Hooker (23-12) was slated to face Bobby Green (31-14) in the co-main event of the recently concluded UFC Fight Night event in Austin, Texas. Unfortunately, the Kiwi was forced to withdraw from the bout merely 10 days ahead of the scheduled date after breaking his arm during one of his final sparring sessions.
According to Hooker, this is the same arm that went under the knife following a hard-fought split-decision win against Jalin Turner at UFC 290 in July.
“It’s the exact same spot... Speaking with the surgeon, it just never healed properly. It actually never healed. It never set into place and by the time that I realized that it’s not healing, I was too deep in,” Hooker said on the MMA Hour. “I was too close to the fight, everything was booked, so I was just kind of going out of my way to protect it and not let it get hurt.”
“Then my second-to-last sparring session, one of my sparring partners whipped a kick out and put it on the right spot and just blew it right through. So, I had the same surgery, just a bigger plate put in, and then they drilled some bone marrow out of my hip and then injected it into the spot where it’s not healing just to ensure it heals up.”
Having learned a lesson in the importance of allowing himself a considerable amount of time to recover from such debilitating injuries, Hooker and his team at City Kickboxing aren't looking to rush back into action, at least for the time being.
“I’ll be back to training in three months... I just never let it set at the start. They gave me a smaller brace and it allowed me to use it and then I was just doing stuff with it and lifting weights. So, at this time, they’ve put me in a concrete cast, they’re not letting me—there’s just absolutely no faith involved, which I need, I need to be protected from myself. So, it’s just set in stone... I’m playing everything by the book this time. I’m not breaking any rules. I’m going to get this thing healed up. Yeah, I think five months is a good target I’ve set myself."
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