{"id":299676,"date":"2025-11-21T17:21:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T17:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/299676\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T17:21:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T17:21:44","slug":"its-on-arman-tsarukyan-dangerously-head-butts-dan-hooker-during-ufc-qatar-face-offs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/299676\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s on! Arman Tsarukyan dangerously head butts Dan Hooker during UFC Qatar face-offs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tsarukyan and Hooker have been talking mad trash<\/a> at each other for years, and that animosity finally boiled over into a physical confrontation one day before their five-round main event showdown. Indeed, after stepping on the scale for fans (official early weigh-in results here<\/a>), Tsarukyan strutted up to Hooker for the traditional pre-fight face off only to immediately head butt the taller \u201cHangman\u201d square in the face.<\/p>\n

Security quickly stepped in to separate the two fighters, with Hooker laughing off the attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s go, let\u2019s go, I love it,\u201d he exclaimed. \u201cBring it on!\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsarukyan didn\u2019t even bother addressing the head butt when Michael Bisping approached him with the mic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m gonna show great knockout and gonna get my title next,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n

Tsarukyan has been very vocal about getting a Lightweight title shot<\/a> against Ilia Topuria with a win over Hooker in the Middle East; however, it\u2019s a crowded field at 155 pounds and Topuria has said he\u2019d prefer to fight<\/a> Paddy Pimblett if he has a choice. In fact, Topuria has even refused to acknowledge Tsarukyan (more on that here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

He might not, but UFC is leaning toward the ultra-popular Justin Gaethje facing Topuria when the rising Spanish star returns.<\/p>\n

That return will reportedly take place at the first major numbered card in January for UFC\u2019s new broadcast deal with Paramount \/ CBS. Can Tsarukyan create enough of a stir in Qatar to lock in a title shot?<\/p>\n

He\u2019s clearly going to try.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tsarukyan and Hooker have been talking mad trash at each other for years, and that animosity finally boiled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85,1396],"class_list":{"0":"post-299676","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}