Josh Hokit has thought through what happens if Ciryl Gane bends the rules on Saturday, and his answer escalates fast. Speaking with Ariel Helwani ahead of UFC 334, Hokit sketched a chain of retaliation that MMA Orbit clipped and posted to X on Tuesday:
“If he pokes my eye, I’m gonna hit him in the back of the head. If he hits me in the back of the head, I’m hitting him low. If he hits me low, I’m stabbing him now. If he stabs me, I’m shooting him. If he shoots me, I’m finding his family and killing them. If he finds my family and kills them, I’m going to France and conquering them.”
It’s a bit, and Hokit treats bits as part of the job. In a conversation with Daniel Cormier about whether his comments help or hurt his career, posted by Championship Rounds, he pointed straight at Cormier’s own history: “You fought Jon Jones for $50K. I’m not going through that. I don’t want anyone to lowball me. If I gotta crack a few eggs to make an omlette, that’s what I’m gonna do.”
View post on X
The noise sits on top of a real résumé. Hokit is 10-0 and No. 10 in the Knockout Daily heavyweight rankings, training out of Jackson-Wink MMA. Before any of this he was an All-American wrestler at Fresno State, where he also played fullback and tight end, then spent time on the San Francisco 49ers practice squad. He didn’t make his pro MMA debut until October 2023 at Bellator 300, where he submitted Spencer Smith with an arm-triangle in the third round. He followed that with an armbar of Sean Rose, three wins in LFA and a stop on Dana White’s Contender Series.
Gane is the opposite kind of athlete. The 14-2 Frenchman came up in Muay Thai, won an AFMT heavyweight title and beat Yassine Boughanem by decision before Fernand Lopez steered him into MMA at MMA Factory. He’s now the UFC heavyweight champion, the first Frenchman to hold a UFC belt. Both men last fought on June 14.
View post on X
That contrast is why the Jones question keeps coming up. In an interview with MMA Sucka, Hokit was asked whether he’d follow Jon Jones’ path to victory, and the matchup practically writes the prompt: a decorated college wrestler with submission wins against a kickboxer who wants range.
The two met face to face for the first time on Tuesday in Times Square, where MMA Junkie caught them trading words. Hokit turned 29 on Thursday. He fights Gane for the title on November 14.
View post on X
