Josh Hokit is two weeks away from fighting Ciryl Gane for the UFC heavyweight title at UFC 334, and he spent Sunday night releasing a diss track instead of a training montage.
The song took shots at Gane, Jon Jones, Tom Aspinall and Alex Pereira, according to a post from Championship Rounds on X. Bloody Elbow, which covered the track, reported that Hokit also swung outside his division at Ilia Topuria and even went after social media personality Nina Drama. He leaned hard on his undefeated record and kept circling back to mock his last opponent, Derrick Lewis.
Derek Brunson saw it about an hour later. The former middleweight quote-posted the Championship Rounds clip and wrote “Haha this is good” with a row of crying-laughing emojis before adding the part that actually matters: “Gane in 3 tho.”
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So the man enjoyed the bars and still doesn’t like the fighter.
Who Hokit Is Mad At, and Why
Gane got the most attention, and most of it went to his fouls. Those fouls are real. Gane poked Aspinall in the eyes in a fight that ended in a No Contest, and Bloody Elbow reported that Aspinall has been unable to compete indefinitely since. Gane then hit Pereira in the back of the head during their fight. Hokit has already been milking this all week. He posted a video of a coach pepper spraying him, supposedly to condition his eyes for Gane’s fingers.
The Topuria line has history behind it. The two had a run-in at the pre-fight press conference for UFC Freedom 250 in Newark.
Jones is a gym grudge. The former champion trains Gable Steveson, Hokit’s rival, at Jackson Wink in Albuquerque.
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How Fast This Happened
Hokit isn’t even a year removed from his UFC debut. He’s been fighting professionally for three years after leaving the NFL, and in that window he has beaten Lewis and Curtis Blaydes, two names that used to be heavyweight gatekeepers for guys with far longer résumés.
The “Incredible Hok” persona made plenty of fans wince early on. Bloody Elbow’s read is that he has since turned into a lovable heel for viewers who have been asking for more promotion on fight week, and a guy who will rap about his opponent’s eye pokes on a Sunday night is a fair fit for that job. Bloody Elbow also reported that Hokit is planning a major change to his game plan for Gane.
My take: I’ll take a heavyweight who books his own chaos over another press tour of polite nods every single time. But Brunson is pointing at the actual problem. Hokit has beaten aging names fast, and Gane is the slickest striker he has ever stood across from, fouls and all. The track is fun. The pepper spray video is funnier. In two weeks, at UFC 334, Hokit finds out whether the guy he’s been clowning lets him get to Round 3.
