“I was furious”: Benoît Saint-Denis’ future opponent had his nose broken during the weigh-in of his last fight

Clearly, Arman Tsarukyan is not directly involved in the fight between Benoît Saint-Denis and Dan Hooker, yet the Armenian is in all the discussions. Not only does the UFC lightweight number 2 continue to target the Frenchman in the media, but he is also Hooker’s latest opponent. He had tamed the New Zealander in the second round of their duel in Qatar at the end of November.

It must be said that Tsarukyan had both psychological and physical advantages going into this MMA fight. Indeed, the future opponent of “BSD” revealed that the Armenian had broken his nose during the weigh-in preceding their clash. The face-off – the moment when the opponents look at each other a few centimeters from each other – had taken a virile turn.

“Destabilized”

“When that asshole headbutted me at the weigh-in and broke my nose, it really pissed me off,” Hooker said on the Ariel Helwani Show podcast. But, at this stage of the fight, we couldn’t let our emotions take over. »

This episode did not remain without consequences on the fight. “Obviously, I was furious,” continued the current number 6 in the lightweight category. But I had to move on, put it aside, even though I was really angry. It completely destabilized me. »

Hooker will challenge Saint-Denis, 8th in the category, on Sunday February 1 at UFC 325 in Sydney. The Nîmes man was singled out by Tsarukyan, who assured that “God of War” would be protected by the UFC. His shadow will hang over the clash in Australia.