Josh Hokit spent all of fight week acting like the main character. Ciryl Gane spent Saturday night at Madison Square Garden making him live with the consequences for the full distance, taking a decision in the UFC 334 heavyweight headliner to move to 15-2. Hokit is listed at 10-1 in the official results. The scorecards weren’t included in the results available to us, so whether that was a clean sweep or a split nobody liked, I can’t tell you yet.
Gane wins the fight. Hokit won the week, and you could argue it wasn’t close. At Thursday’s press conference he dropped a crude line comparing what each side of the dais was into, and Championship Rounds posted a clip showing Amanda Nunes, seated nearby, having a great time with it. On Friday he showed up to the weigh-in playing “drunk” again, according to Championship Rounds, and went limp on the scale for more than a minute without moving. Then, during his walk-in introduction, he flipped off Bruce Buffer. Happy Punch and Championship Rounds both posted the moment, and Happy Punch pointed out that Buffer had previously criticized Hokit’s antics, so this wasn’t random. It was a callback.
Here’s my issue with that whole act. It’s fun right up until the cage door closes, and then the guy across from you is a former interim heavyweight champion who doesn’t care how many views your weigh-in got. Gane went five rounds with a man who’d built an entire character around chaos and left with the win. Nothing in the sources so far points to a next opponent for either man, and nobody has reported a callout.
View post on X
Harrison finishes Nunes in the fourth
The co-main was the fight a lot of people in New York bought tickets for, and Kayla Harrison ended it at 1:29 of Round 4. The official results list it as a stoppage without giving the method, so I won’t guess whether it came from strikes or a submission. Harrison moves to 20-1 at women’s bantamweight. Nunes drops to 23-6.
Think about that timestamp for a second. Nunes, one of the most dangerous finishers the women’s divisions have ever had, made it through three full rounds and a little more before Harrison closed the show. Getting deep into a fight with Nunes and then being the one who finishes it is a serious piece of work. Two days earlier Nunes was laughing at Hokit’s jokes on the dais. Saturday was a much quieter night for her.
The rest of the main card
The results feed doesn’t split the card into main and prelims, so I’m going in billing order here.
View post on X
Caio Borralho def. Yousri Belgaroui. Borralho took the middleweight bout on the scorecards and is now 19-2. Belgaroui falls to 11-4. With no scores available, the takeaway is simple: Borralho won, Belgaroui lasted the full fight, and the judges went with the Brazilian.
Uroš Medić’s opponent, name not listed. This one has a hole in it. The official results show Medić (14-3-1) losing a welterweight decision, but the winner’s name didn’t come through in the data we received. I’m not going to fill that in from memory or guesswork. When the corrected result posts, this paragraph gets updated.
Luis Gurule def. Bilal Hasan. Gurule outpointed Hasan at flyweight to go to 12-4, and Hasan is listed at 10-1. Flyweight decisions tend to get skipped on the highlight reels, and they usually deserve better than that.
Stephen Thompson def. Charles Radtke. Pure Wonderboy. Thompson, at 43 and in what was billed as his retirement fight, knocked Radtke out with a spinning heel kick at 2:54 of Round 3, according to a clip posted by Liam (@WhyYouSoLiam_) on X. Happy Punch posted footage of Joaquin Buckley nearly in tears watching it. Thompson finishes at 18-9-1 and Radtke drops to 12-6. Most fighters don’t get to choose how they leave. Thompson went out with the exact kick people will picture when somebody mentions his name, in the third round, in the Garden. You couldn’t write a better ending, and I’m saying that as somebody whose whole job is writing fight endings.
View post on X
Chris Duncan def. Drew Dober. Duncan beat the veteran Dober on the scorecards at lightweight, moving to 16-3. Dober is now 29-16 with a huge number of UFC miles on him, and anybody who has watched him knows he doesn’t make a decision easy on the other guy.
Quick hits from the rest of the card
- Terrance McKinney def. Jim Miller at lightweight, by stoppage at 1:53 of Round 1. McKinney is 19-9. Miller’s record now reads 39-20, a number that still looks unreal on paper.
- Cesar Almeida def. Donte Johnson at catchweight, by stoppage at 3:20 of Round 1. Almeida goes to 8-3, Johnson to 9-1.
- Melquizael Costa def. Jared Gordon at lightweight on the scorecards. Costa is 27-8, Gordon 21-10.
- Bia Mesquita def. Macy Chiasson at women’s bantamweight, by stoppage at 3:23 of Round 1. Mesquita stays perfect at 9-0, and Chiasson drops to 11-7. That’s the result from the prelims I’d want people talking about Monday.
- Juan Diaz def. Alatengheili at bantamweight on the scorecards. Diaz is 17-1-1, Alatengheili 18-11-2.
- Evan Elder def. Samuel Sanches at lightweight on the scorecards. Both men came in at 11-2 in the listed records, and Elder is the one who walks away with the edge.
One last bit: three of the card’s first-round finishes came early on the bill, and the event closed with two of its biggest names going the distance or deep into a fight. If Gane and Hokit’s scorecards turn out to be wide, expect Hokit’s next press conference to be even louder.
Full Results
- Ciryl Gane def. Josh Hokit (decision, went the distance)
- Kayla Harrison def. Amanda Nunes (stoppage, Round 4, 1:29)
- Caio Borralho def. Yousri Belgaroui (decision, went the distance)
- Winner not listed in official results def. Uroš Medić (decision, went the distance)
- Luis Gurule def. Bilal Hasan (decision, went the distance)
- Stephen Thompson def. Charles Radtke (KO, spinning heel kick, Round 3, 2:54)
- Chris Duncan def. Drew Dober (decision, went the distance)
- Terrance McKinney def. Jim Miller (stoppage, Round 1, 1:53)
- Cesar Almeida def. Donte Johnson (stoppage, Round 1, 3:20)
- Melquizael Costa def. Jared Gordon (decision, went the distance)
- Bia Mesquita def. Macy Chiasson (stoppage, Round 1, 3:23)
- Juan Diaz def. Alatengheili (decision, went the distance)
- Evan Elder def. Samuel Sanches (decision, went the distance)
