“12 hours later I got half my back done” - Dan Hooker shares bizarre sequence of events which led to him getting new tattoos

Dan Hooker caught fans off guard as he showed up to fight week with a noticeably different appearance.

During his UFC 290 media availability, Hooker described the bizarre sequence of events which led to him getting new tattoos and blonde hair. He mentioned that his decision to change the color and get tattoos was entirely unintentional, saying:

"No, complete complete impulse decision as a lot of my other decisions...A cyclone hit New Zealand so then they canceled my flight back...And then I have a friend in the Gold Coast and he was just like, 'Hey, if you need anything while you're in town'...And then end up 12 hours later I got like half my back done."

'Hangman' also brought up that he wanted to balance out the tattoos because he believed that only having a single tattoo on his back looked odd. He mentioned that being the reasoning behind his decision to get two more large tattoos on his shin after returning home to New Zealand.

He said:

"I was like, 'I need another tattoo, balance it out then I'm done.' It was supposed to be a lot smaller but then Rod, who did the tattoo...draws all the way up and like all the way down and I was like, 'Oh well, this is how we're going this way?'...It was very unintentional but I'm very happy with how it all turned out."

It will be interesting to see whether Hooker will be successful with his new look and whether it becomes more popular among the fans similar to other fighters like Charles Oliveira and Derek Brunson.

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Dan Hooker stands by his opinion that Islam Makhachev's usage of an IV at UFC 284

Dan Hooker hasn't changed his stance regarding his opinion that lightweight champion Islam Makhachev's usage of an IV for his bout with Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 284.

During his appearance on The MMA Hour, 'Hangman' told Ariel Helwani that he believed Makhachev might have misunderstood what the rules were regarding IV usage and mentioned that he doesn't think it was anything with malicious intent, saying:

"I think it might've been just like a misunderstanding of the actual ruling because it's quite unclear. Like if USADA said something's alright, most people just think that it's alright then."