Alex Pereira looked at the UFC 334 poster and saw the problem before most of the people who printed it did. I’m only half joking.
On X this week, Pereira questioned why Ciryl Gane vs. Josh Hokit is sitting in the headliner slot. He argued the card’s women’s bout should have it instead, then appointed himself to the marketing department. His post, which Championship Rounds circulated Friday, read: “Why the Women’s Fight is not the Main Event? Okay let me help promote this cause no one is paying attention to it.”
I love it. He’s right, and the evidence is sitting in plain sight.
View post on X
The main event has a selling problem
Start with the guy in the B-side corner. Josh Hokit is getting a title shot at UFC 334, and even his defenders are hedging. MMA Fighting reported that Matt Brown stood up for Hokit while admitting there was a more deserving contender for that title shot. When the people backing you have to add a disclaimer, the matchup has a credibility leak.
Then Alexander Volkov piled on in the politest way possible. Speaking to Helen Yee, in a clip shared by Dovy on X, Volkov imagined his own fight with Hokit and said, “For me, it will be the easiest fight ever, easier title shot.” He followed that with a genuinely sweet “You are a nice guy,” which is about the most devastating thing one fighter can say about another’s title credentials. Then he gave out the pick: “we should probably bet on Gane.”
So the most quoted view this week on the challenger is that he’d be a gift. That’s a rough place to start a fight week.
Gane isn’t exactly carrying a wave of goodwill either. MMA Full Mount posted a compilation of his fouls and noted the video ran pretty long. Spinnin Backfist summed up the internet’s reaction: “Committing enough fouls to get a compilation video is crazy.” There’s a version of Gane that sells a main event on pure skill. The version people were clipping this week is the one with a lowlight reel of fouls.
View post on X
Add it up. You’ve got a heavy favorite with a foul montage going viral, and a challenger whose own allies concede somebody else deserved the shot. That’s the headliner, and the UFC wants you excited about it.
Pereira’s point about attention is the sharpest part
The line that matters most in Pereira’s post is the second sentence. He said no one is paying attention to the women’s fight, and the week’s coverage backs him up.
I went through MMA Fighting’s Morning Reports from Wednesday and Friday. Wednesday led with Dricus du Plessis explaining why Sean Strickland is so hard to fight and predicting that Nassourdine Imavov loses their rematch. It also had Ryan Garcia calling out Floyd Mayweather and Paddy Pimblett pitching a TUF season opposite Ilia Topuria. Friday led with Jorge Masvidal and Ben Askren rewatching a flying knee from UFC 239 in July 2019. That’s a knockout from more than seven years ago getting more airtime than a fight on next month’s numbered card. The UFC 334 women’s bout doesn’t show up in either one.
There’s something funny here, too. Pereira never named the fight in his post. He just called it “the Women’s Fight.” Even the guy launching a one-man promotional campaign for it left the names out, which is about the strongest proof of his point you could ask for.
Why this is good for everybody
This is the kind of fighter behavior I want more of. Pereira isn’t asking for a bigger slot for himself. He’s looking at a card he’s paying attention to and telling the promotion it misread what deserves the spotlight. Then he’s offering to do the legwork. That’s the opposite of the fighter who disappears between camps and lets the PR team handle it.
View post on X
He also clearly isn’t leaving the building. MMA Fighting reported this same week that Pereira all but ruled out an eventual move to boxing. A guy planning to stick around has every reason to care whether a numbered UFC card gets attention top to bottom.
The obvious counter is that the belt goes on top, and Gane vs. Hokit is the title fight. Fine. But billing order is a promotional choice, and the UFC has spent this week watching its own headliner get described as an easy title shot by a rival heavyweight. If a challenger’s peers are openly calling the fight a layup, putting it in the co-main costs you nothing. Keeping it on top while the women’s bout goes unmentioned costs you the fight nobody has bothered to sell yet.
Put the women’s fight on top. Let Gane and Hokit sort out the belt one slot lower. And if Pereira actually starts posting promo for that bout this week, somebody in the UFC’s marketing office should feel a little embarrassed that the most useful hype man on the card is a fighter who isn’t even on it.
