Josh Hokit has a heavyweight title fight with Ciryl Gane coming up, and he still found time to go after Alex Pereira. After Pereira complained on social media about the bout order for UFC 334, Hokit answered on X by needling the Brazilian over his own billing in December, where Pereira will fight Sergei Pavlovich in the co-main event underneath a BMF title fight.
Hokit opened with “My name Dum Dum. You bring me Gum Gum?” and kept going from there. “Lol I didn’t realize that losing your aura affected your IQ,” he wrote. “You aren’t even BMF worthy. They prefer a little crotch sniffer over an Auraless Sorceress.”
He also took a swipe at Pereira’s opponent choice, or at least at how it could end for him. “Hopefully Sergei doesn’t end you like he did your Brazilian punching bag teammate,” Hokit added. He didn’t name the teammate.
How the cards line up
Hokit gets Gane in the main event of UFC 334 at Madison Square Garden. That’s Gane’s first defense as undisputed champion. The Frenchman knocked out Pereira at the White House in June to become a two-time interim heavyweight champion, then got bumped up to the full title when Tom Aspinall vacated it. The co-main at the Garden is Amanda Nunes coming out of retirement to face Kayla Harrison. That ordering is what set Pereira off, according to Bloody Elbow, which first reported the exchange.
One month later, UFC 335 closes out 2026 in Las Vegas. Charles Oliveira defends the BMF title against Diego Lopes, and Pereira meets Pavlovich in the slot beneath them, with top contender status at heavyweight on the line.
Hokit’s path to the Gane fight came fast. He’s 3-0 in 2026, a run that includes a win over Curtis Blaydes in a fight in Miami that people are still calling a classic, followed by a knockout of Derrick Lewis at UFC Freedom 250 in June. The former American football player went from contender to title challenger inside one calendar year.
There was talk of Hokit and Pereira fighting each other at some point, and the back-and-forth suggests neither man has let go of that idea. For now, the matchmaking has them on separate cards a month apart, which means the trash talk will keep running on X between fight camps.
Quick take
The “Auraless Sorceress” line is going to follow Pereira around for a while, and Hokit knows exactly where to press: the June loss to Gane is the freshest thing on Pereira’s resume, and a co-main slot under Oliveira and Lopes isn’t where a former champion pictured himself. But Hokit is the one walking into the harder room. Three wins in one year earned him Gane, and Gane just put Pereira to sleep. If Hokit loses at the Garden, Pereira gets to answer all of this a month later in Las Vegas, and he’ll have Pavlovich’s result to talk about too.
