Jon Jones watched Ciryl Gane retain the UFC heavyweight title against Josh Hokit on Saturday night with a camera rolling and a grudge on his mind. As Bruce Buffer read three 48-47 scorecards for Gane at Madison Square Garden and Hokit raised his arm, Jones laughed in a video that circulated on X. “Put your hand down,” he said. “Good job Frenchman!”
He followed with the line that carried the most weight, since he and Hokit both train under Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn at Jackson Wink MMA Academy in Albuquerque. “Same coaches, different results,” Jones said, as MMA Fighting reported, a pointed reference to his own night against Gane in March 2023, when he submitted the Frenchman in the first round at UFC 285 to win the heavyweight belt.
On X, Jones kept going without using Hokit’s name. “Bro, I know it’s the craziest coincidence,” he wrote. “Almost every single fighter that talks crap about me ends up losing the next fight. I swear it’s been that way for years. Weird.” He also quote-posted a clip with “Who taught your boy how to wrestle? Impressive!”, which MiddleEasy read as praise for the way Gane handled the grappling. When a fan joked that Gane was doing Jones’ bidding, Jones replied, “I’m not gonna lie, it’s kind of nice.”
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The bad blood is recent and loud. According to MMA Mania and BJPenn.com, Hokit was among the sharpest critics of Jones after his protege Gable Steveson was knocked out in September, and he took shots at Jones in a diss track aimed at the heavyweight division. At UFC 334 media day, Hokit shouted “F*ck Jon Jones.” He also flipped off Buffer during his octagon introduction, and Dana White said afterward there isn’t really a line Hokit won’t cross.
The fight itself deserved better than a feud as its footnote. Hokit, previously undefeated, dragged Gane into a pace Alan Jouban said no heavyweight had ever matched, leaning on clinch work and pressure through the opening rounds. Dominick Cruz had Hokit up 3-0 on his card. Ben Askren predicted Gane would collapse from exhaustion before 25 minutes were up. Instead, Gane (who entered at 14-2) stuffed the grappling, kept countering, and won Rounds 4 and 5 as Hokit faded. Merab Dvalishvili called it the most exciting UFC heavyweight fight he’d ever watched. Francis Ngannou, who beat Gane in January 2022, posted “Great war 🔥 Congratulations bon gamin! 👍🏽”
The win adds Hokit to a reign that already includes a victory over Alex Pereira, according to MMA Mania. Heavy reported the UFC hasn’t committed to Gane’s next challenger. Alexander Volkov is one option, as is the winner of Sergei Pavlovich vs. Pereira in the UFC 335 co-main event, and Tom Aspinall looms if healthy. Jones remains retired, though Heavy floated the idea of a Gane rematch should he ever want one.
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My take: Jones has every right to enjoy this, and Hokit practically mailed him the invitation. But laughing from retirement at a 25-minute war is the cheapest seat in the house, and Hokit’s first loss came at the very end of a fight that drained the champion. The detail I keep coming back to is the gym. Jackson and Winkeljohn built Jones, they’re building Hokit, and on Monday morning in Albuquerque they’ll be the ones who have to fix what broke down in Round 4.
