On February 25, Dan Hooker posted a video on YouTube about his current health situation. According to Hooker, he had a hand injury in the recent training session. This boxer could not recover immediately, so he had to withdraw from the match with Justin Gaethje.
Initially the match between Justin Gaethje and Dan Hooker is expected to last 5 rounds, taking place on March 8 at the UFC 313 event. This is one of the two focal matches. The remaining match is the Light Heavyweight weight competition between Alex Pereira and Magomed Ankalaev.
Dan Hooker withdrew only 10 days before the weight test made UFC difficult. They do not have much time to find the replacement of Hooker to face a leading boxer like Justin Gaethje. In the worst context, Justin Gaethje may not be able to participate in the event.
A boxer who can be filled with UFC at the last minute is Ilia Topuria, who has just announced the abandonment of the Featherweight championship belt to rank Lightweight. The possibility of Topuria accepting and preparing is not high. But if he agreed, UFC 313 could be the most attractive event of the year.
Both Justin Gaethje and Dan Hooker have now turned 35. That makes them unable to play much recently. The last time Hooker took place in August 2024, while Justin Gaethje had been offered for nearly a year since the UFC 300 event.