Bruce Buffer has spent decades yelling names into microphones for a living, and he used a Kick livestream with N3ON to say which name he’s least excited to yell. That would be Josh Hokit, the undefeated heavyweight who challenges Ciryl Gane for the title at UFC 334 on November 14 at Madison Square Garden.
“He can fight, but I don’t like what he talks about,” Buffer said. “I think he’s disrespectful, and sorry, Josh, if you’re watching, it’s just the way it is. But this is his thing; it’s his game. It’s not my style.”
My take is that Buffer got both halves of this right. The joke was garbage, and it shouldn’t change one decibel of the introduction.
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What Hokit Actually Said
Here’s a refresher for anyone who blacked out in June. Hokit stopped Derrick Lewis in the second round at UFC Freedom 250, the White House card. Then he grabbed the mic and asked the crowd, “Michelle Obama is a man, am I right, America?”
Dana White has built a big chunk of his public persona on defending free speech, and he didn’t defend this one. He texted TIME: “Everyone knows my position on free speech, but I hate that kind of nonsense.” When the guy who signs the checks and usually enjoys a loose cannon calls your bit nonsense, the bit has a problem. MMA Mania notes that White has also said he won’t muzzle Hokit, so nobody should expect a punishment. Disapproval from the top is about as far as the UFC goes.
Then Hokit tried to explain himself on The Ariel Helwani Show, and the explanation was worse than the original line. “I thought I was giving her a compliment,” he said. When Helwani didn’t buy it, Hokit kept digging: “Michelle Obama being a man. It’s like, she knows how to deal with adversity. She knows how to work hard like a man when the times get tough.”
I’ve heard guys explain a busted 12-leg parlay with more coherence than that. I’ve been one of those guys, so I know the sound of a man talking himself deeper into the hole.
Buffer Drew the Line in the Right Place
Buffer didn’t call for a suspension, and he didn’t say he’d phone it in on fight night. Someone in the room joked that he’d carry a grudge into the main event introductions. He said that wasn’t the case. “I’ll give him his introduction,” he said. “It’s like, show some class. That’s just the way I am.”
His reasoning holds up too. He said that anyone who steps into the Octagon, man or woman, is putting their blood, sweat and life on the line, and his job is to make that moment bigger for them. That is the correct job description. The announcer’s opinion of a guy’s post-fight mic work has no business leaking into the intro, and Buffer knows it.
He’s also been consistent. After Conor McGregor’s bus attack during the Khabib Nurmagomedov feud, the 69-year-old told TMZ, “There’s no excuse for it. It’s an insult; it’s disgusting.” He kept introducing fighters after that, too. He’ll say what he thinks, then go to work.
The Mouth Doesn’t Move the Number I Care About
Now for the odds side. Hokit’s résumé is legit. MMA Mania counts four straight UFC wins in seven months, three of them by second-round TKO, Lewis included. His fight with Curtis Blaydes at UFC 327 in Miami on April 11 got Fight of the Year talk. He’s 28 and unbeaten. He also caught a break when Tom Aspinall vacated with an eye injury, which made Gane the undisputed champ and opened the door.
Heavy’s write-up, syndicated on Yahoo, lists Hokit as the betting favorite. The same paragraph also says he’s “not supposed to win,” so I can’t reconcile that and I won’t pretend I can. If Hokit really is favored, that price is built on momentum from four fights, and I’ve lost enough money on momentum to be suspicious. Heavy says Gane has far more championship experience. BJPenn.com confirms this is Hokit’s first title fight. That gap should matter more than a hot streak against Blaydes and a 41-year-old Lewis... and I’m not giving you Lewis’s age, because the sources don’t, so strike that and keep the point. A hot streak is four data points. Title experience is a different sample.
The trash talk adds nothing to his chances either way. Gane’s chin won’t get softer because Hokit said something dumb about a former First Lady. If you bet this fight because you want to see Hokit get shut up, or because you want him to win and own the people who are mad at him, you’re betting a feeling. Bet the matchup.
On November 14 at the Garden, Buffer will give Hokit the full roar, same as everyone else. What Hokit does with the microphone afterward is on him, and after June, I’d set the over/under on a clean post-fight speech pretty low.
