Ciryl Gane beat Josh Hokit by unanimous decision in the UFC 334 heavyweight main event, with all three judges scoring it 48-47.
The cards were close, and the fight left plenty to argue about. Here’s how the sport reacted on X.
The decision didn’t sit right with everyone
The loudest reaction came from cageside. Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) posted footage of Alex Pereira shaking his head in disagreement as Gane was announced the winner, and the same account noted that Joshua Van also looked confused by the result. Neither said a word on camera, as far as the clip shows. Pereira’s head shake carried the message anyway.
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ChampRDS’s post announcing the result drew close to 5,000 engagements. Once fans started replaying the fight, the mood turned less celebratory.
The eye poke
The sharpest criticism was about one moment. ChampRDS posted the clip, pointed out that referee Marc Goddard didn’t call Gane’s poke to Hokit’s eye, and added a facepalm emoji.
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Ariel Helwani was far less restrained. He wrote on X that, of course, Gane had poked Hokit in the eye, and called it unbelievable. He said the replay made the foul obvious, criticized the lack of a point deduction and described the poke as reckless and dangerous.
The missing deduction matters more than usual here. On cards of 48-47, one point in either direction changes how this decision looks, and that is probably why Helwani’s post spread the way it did.
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Praise for Hokit
Hokit lost, but he gave Gane real problems. When he picked up Gane and slammed him, ChampRDS posted “JOSH HOKIT SLAMS CIRYL GANE” and “WHAT A F*CKING ROUND” in all caps. Spinnin Backfist (@SpinninBackfist) shared the same moment with “JOSH HOKIT GETS THE SLAM.” Slamming a heavyweight as long and evasive as Gane isn’t easy, and Hokit managed it.
The two men ended on good terms. ChampRDS captured them talking after the decision, and Hokit told Gane, “You’re tougher than I thought.” Coming from a man who had just spent the night trying to drag him to the floor, that is a meaningful compliment.
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The jokes
Hokit gave X plenty to laugh about before the fight began. ChampRDS posted a clip of him flipping the bird at Bruce Buffer during his introduction, followed by a crying-laughing emoji. Before that, the account had shared video of Hokit in the back “working on his eye pokes before the Ciryl Gane fight,” which looks a lot funnier now that the eye poke everyone is discussing landed on Hokit.
Amanda Nunes was also in the building. ChampRDS caught her arriving at the arena and said she looked “LOCKED in,” which gave her fans something to speculate about even though she had nothing to do with the main event.
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What’s next for Gane
Nobody called out Gane in the posts that circulated after the fight. His win came with a loud complaint about the officiating, a head shake from Pereira, and an opponent who walked away with more respect than he arrived with. If Gane wants his next opponent to come with less debate attached, he’ll need to win clearly enough that Pereira has no reason to shake his head.
