Josh Hokit treated UFC 334 media day like an open mic night. The undefeated heavyweight opened his session in New York on Wednesday with what MMA Junkie described as a roast, going after champion Ciryl Gane, Daniel Cormier, Kayla Harrison, Joaquin Buckley and a few others in clips the outlet posted on X.
He didn’t stop at comedy. Hokit also said he wants to be a UFC double champion and plans to move down to 205 pounds once he saves heavyweight, according to MMA Junkie. That’s a man asking for his second belt three days before he’s tried to win his first.
The first belt belongs to Gane, who was recently crowned and makes his first defense Saturday, Nov. 14, against Hokit, the No. 4 heavyweight, at Madison Square Garden. The card streams on Paramount+, with the UFC listing a 9 p.m. ET start for the main event broadcast.
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The scheduling added a little flavor. Hokit took the podium at 11:15 a.m., second on the day behind flyweight Luis Gurule, according to the schedule MMA Fighting published. Gane wasn’t due up until 12:15 p.m., which gave the champion a full hour to hear what had been said about him before anyone handed him a microphone.
Harrison catching strays is its own story. She’s on the same card, defending her women’s bantamweight title against former two-division champion Amanda Nunes in a five-round co-main event. Getting roasted by the guy headlining above you on fight week is a new one, even for New York.
The media day lineup ran 12 fighters deep. Along with the four title fighters, the schedule included No. 5 middleweight Caio Borralho, middleweight Yousri Belgaroui, No. 12 welterweight Uros Medic, welterweights Kevin Holland, Stephen Thompson and Charles Radtke, and flyweights Bilal Hasan and Gurule.
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Not everyone is buying the heavyweight title picture, Hokit’s rescue mission included. Retired UFC welterweight Matt Brown told MMA Fighting that the division’s best are the guys who aren’t fighting for the belt, naming Jon Jones, Francis Ngannou and Tom Aspinall.
“These guys are fighting for second place unfortunately,” Brown said. “That’s just the reality of the business.”
He still expects a good one. “It’s still going to be a great fight,” Brown said, before landing the line of the week: “it just feels like we’re taking these wild-card teams and putting them in the Super Bowl.”
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My take: I’ll take a heavyweight who roasts a Hall of Famer, a champion and a co-headliner over one more guy telling reporters he’s only focused on himself. Hokit talking about saving the division is a little rich when Brown is out there saying the division’s real kings are home on the couch, and the 205 talk means nothing until he gets past Gane. But he asked for it out loud, with a microphone, in Manhattan. Saturday night at the Garden he finds out whether the material holds up for five rounds.
