Dan Hooker and Paul Felder were hospitalised after their fight in the main event at UFC Fight Night 168 in Auckland. Photo / Instagram
Dan Hooker and Paul Felder were hospitalised after their fight in the main event at UFC Fight Night 168 in Auckland. Photo / Instagram
After battling for 25 minutes in the UFC octagon, the damage showed on the faces of Kiwi Dan Hooker and his American counterpart Paul Felder.
While they waited for ring announcer Bruce Buffer to read out the decision, the wounds of war were clear. Hooker's right cheek protruded from hisface, while Felder's right eye had closed over.
After the result was announced, a split decision win to Hooker, and the pair had made their post-fight interviews inside the cage, they didn't hang around to speak to the media.
Both Hooker and Felder were taken straight to hospital following their bout. Hooker was thought to have a broken jaw, while Felder had to be helped from the octagon by his coaching team.
The pair put their bodies on the line to entertain a sold-out crowd of 10,025 at Auckland's Spark Arena, headlining a card that had plenty to get the fans excited. The crowd, as well as the gate of NZ$1,952,797, was the largest ever for a sporting event at Spark Arena.
"It's nice to get there," UFC senior vice president of international and content David Shaw said. "I don't know if it was on anyone's radar, we weren't really sure heading into the week what the gate record actually was, but we knew we were going to suprass the Te Huna-Marquardt fight as well as the Hunt-Lewis fight.
"From an operation and promotional perspective it's nice getting that record and going north of 10,000 in terms of attendance."
Both Paul Felder and Dan Hooker were taken to hospital after fighting in the main event at UFC Fight Night 168 in Auckland. Photo / Photosport
Hooker out-struck Felder 133 to 119 over the five five-minute rounds, and secured the lone takedown of the bout inside the final minutes of the fight which secured him a very tight win.
The pair were awarded Fight of the Night honours for their brawl, and each took away an extra US$50,000 (NZ$78,765) for their work.
