Bruce Buffer saw the middle finger coming weeks before Josh Hokit raised it. Speaking in a live Q&A with Jon Anik after UFC 334, the longtime Octagon announcer said he’d told Anik and Daniel Cormier about a month earlier that he expected Hokit to try something during introductions on Nov. 14. He also had a plan: slap the hand away. Cormier shut that down with three words, “Don’t do that,” and Buffer said he agreed.
Then it happened exactly the way Buffer called it. Buffer was introducing Hokit for the main event against heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and “The Incredible Hok” flipped him the bird mid-introduction. Clips spread fast, and the reaction online was mostly confusion, because almost nobody picks a fight with Bruce Buffer.
Anik asked whether he regretted holding back. Buffer didn’t.
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“That would just make the show, the show’s not about me. I’m glad that I didn’t. But, you know how I am Jon. I’m sorry, I’ll go down in a pool of blood if I have to in a situation. It’s just about being a man.”
He also brushed off the whole feud. “Hokit came out and made a comment because he got his panties in a bunch over the little comment that I made, right? Come on, sticks and stones may break my bones, okay? Big deal,” Buffer said.
The comment Buffer was talking about came on streamer N3on’s channel, where Buffer said Hokit “can fight, but I don’t like what he talks about,” called him disrespectful and told him to “show some class.” Buffer specifically pointed to what Hokit said at UFC White House, the June 14 Freedom 250 card, where Hokit beat Derrick Lewis and then called former First Lady Michelle Obama a man. Hokit fired back at Buffer last month, and Saturday’s gesture was the in-person sequel.
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Dana White, asked about it at the post-fight press conference, called it pretty crazy and said it threw Buffer off. “Nobody has flipped Buffer off before,” White said, adding that everything Hokit does crosses a line. White made clear he considered the Michelle Obama remark far worse than anything Hokit did to the announcer.
The fight itself was a monster. Hokit, 29, ran Gane ragged early, scoring a first-round takedown and landing a clean overhand while the champion leaned on his jab. Gane looked gassed by the third. Then the Frenchman found something in Rounds 4 and 5, rallied from behind on the cards and kept his belt by unanimous decision. The two combined for 541 total strikes, a heavyweight record, and both men went to the hospital afterward. White said the pace was insane and admitted that after Round 1 he thought Gane was in big trouble.
Buffer got his moment anyway. While reading the verdict, he threw a fake step toward Hokit before bellowing that Gane was still the champ.
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Cormier gave the right advice. If Buffer swats that hand, the clips Sunday morning are about a 25-year announcer brawling with a challenger, and a 541-strike heavyweight war becomes the B-story. Hokit fought like a guy who belongs in title fights. His conduct before the bell was the cheap part of his night. Buffer’s answer, that little fake step during the decision, was perfectly timed.
