Athlon Sports published a piece Wednesday, picked up by Yahoo Sports and AOL, arguing that whoever wins Saturday’s UFC 334 headliner between Ciryl Gane and Josh Hokit walks out as, arguably, the fourth-best heavyweight in the world. The same day, MMA Sucka ran a headline saying a UFC veteran claims neither Gane nor Hokit is No. 1. That’s a lot of shade for a title fight that, on paper, is about as interesting a matchup as the division can make right now.
I think the critics have the list right and the conclusion wrong. The three names they put above the belt are real. Treating them as permanent fixtures above whoever actually fights is where I get off the bus.
The three names on the list
Francis Ngannou, 40, left the UFC without ever losing the heavyweight title because he and the promotion couldn’t agree on a new deal. Athlon frames him as the lineal champion “if you believe in such things,” which is a polite way of admitting the argument runs on nostalgia. Lineage is a lovely boxing tradition. It’s also how you end up with a champion who isn’t on the roster.
Jon Jones, 39, has the case Gane can’t argue with, because Gane was there for it. Jones submitted him in Round 1 of the UFC 285 main event in 2023 to win the heavyweight belt, and he made it look routine. Since then Jones has teased comebacks without fully committing, whether for personal reasons or because the UFC’s money wasn’t right. A rematch would be a real question. A tease is a press release.
Tom Aspinall, 33, is the one I can’t wave away. He was the UFC heavyweight champion when he met Gane at UFC 321, and an accidental eye poke in Round 1 ended the fight as a No Contest. Aspinall was later diagnosed with a rare eye condition that has his career on hold. Gane didn’t beat him. Nobody did. That asterisk sits on the belt regardless of what happens Saturday, and it should.
Why I don’t buy the “fourth place” framing
Rankings of absent men are a parlor game. Ngannou chose to leave. Jones has chosen, so far, to stay theoretical. Aspinall’s situation is medical and genuinely unfortunate, and nobody should pretend it’s his fault. But the heavyweight title has to be defended by people who can make the walk, and Gane has been making it. He knocked out former two-division champion Alex Pereira at UFC Freedom 250 in June, and he has looked like the best active heavyweight on the roster in recent outings. You don’t get to stay ahead of the guy who keeps fighting just because your last result was good.
The UFC’s actual problem is narrower than Athlon makes it sound. The “Baddest Man on the Planet” label has migrated from boxing to the UFC heavyweight champion (Athlon notes even Max Kellerman has conceded the point), and right now the promotion can’t sell that label with a straight face. That’s a marketing headache. Competitively, Saturday fixes more than it breaks.
What Gane vs. Hokit actually tests
Athlon’s own scouting report says Gane is a pristine kickboxer whose losses have come from a lack of defensive grappling. The Jones fight is the clearest example: one round, one submission, one loss. Hokit, 28, out of Clovis, California, comes in undefeated with real skills on the feet and on the mat. So the matchmakers built a fight that pokes directly at the hole Jones exposed. That’s good matchmaking, and it’s the closest thing to a Jones rematch the UFC can offer without Jones.
If Gane stuffs Hokit’s grappling and wins on his terms, he’s answered part of the question everyone assumes he’d flunk against Jones. If Hokit wins, he becomes champion with zero head-to-head losses to anyone on that list of three, which is a cleaner claim than Gane can make. Either way, the fighter holding the belt Sunday has a better argument than he did Friday.
Hokit has also been in Gane’s ear. At the Times Square faceoff, he kept repeating the Arabic slang word “zebi” at the Frenchman, per Athlon. Trash talk wins nothing on its own, but a 28-year-old who’s willing to get under a champion’s skin in public usually isn’t planning to stand at range and trade kicks with a kickboxer for 25 minutes.
My pick is Hokit. Gane’s striking is the best in the division, and I’d still rather bet on the guy who can change levels against a man whose most famous loss came on the mat in Round 1. I’ll take Hokit to drag this into deep water and win the later rounds on control. If the judges hand out a 10-8 for a single takedown and two minutes of top position, I’ll be writing a different column.
The UFC still owes everyone a Gane vs. Aspinall answer if Aspinall’s eye ever allows it. That’s the fight that would settle the asterisk. Saturday, Nov. 14, settles who gets to wait for it.
