Josh Hokit has a heavyweight title fight in November, and the guy who will be yelling his name into a microphone that night just called him a bad influence. Hokit did not take it quietly.
Bruce Buffer, the UFC’s longtime Octagon announcer, took a shot at Hokit while walking around with N3on, the content creator who has been popping up all over MMA lately, MMA Mania reported. Buffer said he didn’t care for what Hokit said after beating Derrick Lewis at UFC Freedom 250 in June. He called Hokit “disrespectful” and suggested the heavyweight was falling short as a role model for young people. That puts Buffer in the same corner as Dana White, who has also voiced his distaste for Hokit’s postfight act.
Hokit fired back on X on Oct. 14.
View post on X
“I talk trash in the Octagon, but guys on this roster have actual criminal records and rape charges,” Hokit wrote. “I have no criminal record, yet I’m not classy enough? You realize we are in the gladiator business, right? Should men who try to kill other men, really be your role model?”
He tacked a laughing emoji and a “lol” onto the original post, in case anyone thought he was losing sleep over it.
Hokit never names names, and he doesn’t need to. The UFC has a code of conduct policy on the books, though MMA Mania argued it hasn’t been enforced or taken seriously in years, and nothing in it says fighters have to be anybody’s role model anyway.
The timing is the fun part. Hokit is set to fight for the UFC heavyweight belt in November, a booking that has not exactly thrilled Alex Pereira. So the man who questioned Hokit’s class will be standing in the cage a few weeks from now, tuxedo on, hyping him up for the biggest fight of his life. Somebody in the production truck should keep a camera on Hokit’s face during the intro.
My take: Hokit is right, and it isn’t close. The Lewis win came at a show called Freedom 250, and the whole product is grown men getting paid to concuss each other while sportsbook ads scroll past the cage. Lecturing a heavyweight about manners is a strange hill for the guy whose whole job is shouting “It’s time!” before the violence starts. You can find the trash talk corny (plenty of people do). But a fighter with no criminal record getting the etiquette speech from a 60-second walk-and-talk with a streamer is a little rich. Buffer will still say his name loud in November. He always does.
