The Arman Tsarukyan vs Dan Hooker bout heated up long before it ever hit the Octagon, when the former fighter showed little hesitation in headbutting Hooker at the weigh-ins. While a dominant victory put Tsarukyan back in title conversations, Dana White revealed that the misconduct “a 100 percent” influenced the Armenian’s title snub.

That reasoning doesn’t feel convincing enough for Tsarukyan’s UFC Qatar rival, though, who stepped in a rare moment of support for the Armenian. Questioning whether the decision to exclude the No. 1 lightweight contender was, after all, based on moral grounds, Hooker can’t help but deny that belief.

Dan Hooker believes Arman Tsarukyan’s snub had nothing to do with UFC Qatar

In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Hooker was asked whether he found Tsarukyan’s exclusion to be a legitimate punishment. Despite being on the receiving side of the chaos, Hooker brought an interesting perspective into the mix, as he shared, “Yeah, maybe just no one was getting a title shot off of that fight.”

He continued, “You know what I mean? That leads me to believe that no one was getting a title shot off of that fight, and it was just a bit of smoke and mirrors. They can’t be that pissed off with him. He gave him a $50,000 bonus for f**k’s sake.”

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Indeed, Tsarukyan grabbed a $50K Performance of the Night bonus, personally signed off by Dana White, blurring the lines of White’s morality. If ethics don’t come in the way of the rightful recipient of the bonus, why does the lightweight title shot decision follow a different set of rules? The reasoning is simple: maybe the Armenian was never in the equation at all, despite the hyped up Qatar showdown, as Hooker argued.

“I mean, you know, don’t give him a title shot — it’s fine — but don’t tell him that’s the reason. Because if you want to make Paddy and Justin, just say you want to make Paddy and Justin,” Damon Martin of MMA Fighting agreed with ‘The Hangman’s argument. And while fans might agree with the New Zealander, Tsarukyan remains out of the lightweight title picture.

Tsarukyan, on the other hand, had previously stated that the UFC decided to book Gaethje vs Pimblett for business reasons. Moreover, with Justin Gaethje on the verge of his UFC retirement, the bout commands a sudden urgency and last fight drama. On top of that, Pimblett received the title shot because, according to Arman Tsarukyan, the UFC prefers Americans and English fighters over others.

Arman Tsarukyan critiques UFC’s favoritism for Paddy Pimblett

With contenders like Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira ranked ahead of him, Paddy Pimblett‘s rising star power and a western appeal are what actually position him as the preferred title holder.

“Everybody knows, Paddy Pimblett, they want to make him a champion because it’s his chance to be a champion,” Tsarukyan exclaimed. He feels that if the Liverpudlian is put against him, it would inevitably lead to a disheartening loss, fizzling out the UFC star. When White compared Pimblett’s journey to Conor McGregor’s meteoric rise, Tsarukyan’s words only felt like a cautionary alarm for the promotion’s preference for the ‘Baddy’.

Further, Tsarukyan argued that the interim title was just a way of handing Pimblett the honors as long as they can before a hyped Ilia Topuria bout squashes his hopes. “Gaethje is easy money for him. He’s old, he has maybe one or two fights left. So that’s why they give him interim title because he’s not going to be a real champion, because there’s Ilia Topuria and I never think he can beat Ilia Topuria,” he added.

Tsarukyan’s frustrations highlight the tension between merit and marketability in the UFC’s title picture, and Hooker’s words add a twist to the lengths the promotion would go to sell a story. Do you agree with Dan Hooker? And, who do you think truly deserves the next lightweight title shot—Tsarukyan or Pimblett?