Josh Hokit has a main event against Ciryl Gane in seven days, and he’s already shopping for middleweights.
According to MMA Sucka, the unbeaten heavyweight told Sean Strickland, Dricus Du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev to meet him at a 225-pound catchweight with the BMF title on the line. Any of the three would apparently do. MMA Sucka’s report doesn’t include the exact wording of the callout, so you won’t find a quote here. The terms are blunt enough without one: three of the biggest names at 185, one big wrestler, and a 40-pound gap that somebody has to close.
Hokit is 10-0 and sits No. 10 at heavyweight in the Knockout Daily rankings. He trains out of Jackson-Wink MMA. The resume before MMA is half the appeal. He was an All-American wrestler at Fresno State, also played tight end and fullback there, and then spent time with the San Francisco 49ers as an undrafted free agent, plus a five-day stint with the Arizona Cardinals in 2022. His pro MMA debut came at Bellator 300 in October 2023, when he finished Spencer Smith with an arm-triangle choke in Round 3.
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The mouth has cost him. Dana White told Jim Rome he handed Hokit a rough road on purpose: “I didn’t like some of the things he said, so I might’ve threw some tough guys at him.” Hokit kept winning anyway, which is how a guy ends up headlining UFC 334 against a former interim heavyweight champion. (Interim belts remain silly. Gane is still a problem.)
Gane already has a read on the trash talk. Per RMC Sport, he said Hokit’s talk won’t get to him unless Hokit goes after his mother. Luke Thomas saw where that was headed and posted: “Well, now he’s going to target her, dude.”
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Of the three names Hokit called, Strickland is the one most likely to bite. He’s the two-time UFC middleweight champion, 31-7, and he spent this week posting footage of himself dropping Joaquin Buckley in sparring with the caption “Sit down Buckley.” He does not walk away from attention.
The catchweight math is the catch. Strickland would have to come up 40 pounds from the middleweight limit to meet a guy who has spent his whole adult life tackling people for a living. That’s a lot to ask for a belt that exists mostly for vibes.
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None of it gets booked until Hokit handles business. He fights Gane on November 14 at UFC 334, two days after his 29th birthday. If he wins, expect the callout to get louder.
