NEW YORK (AP) — UFC heavyweight Josh Hokit said he has no regrets about using the White House as a bully pulpit to make an extraordinary and unfounded attack based on a right-wing conspiracy theory about former
first lady Michelle Obama.
Hokit made his vulgar remarks inside the octagon in June after winning his fight at the UFC event to mark President Donald Trump's 80th birthday on the South Lawn of the White House.
Hokit fights for the first time since then on Saturday when he challenges heavyweight champion Cyril Gane in the main event of UFC 334 at Madison Square Garden.
Hokit again made a series of crass insults about other fighters on the fight card on Wednesday inside a New York hotel before taking questions about his championship bout and his remarks on Obama.
“I’ll never look back and be like, I regret that," Hokit said.
Wearing a black stocking cap over an American flag bandana, sunglasses and fight gloves, Hokit said he “took the rap of a villain” before he burst into what he called a freestyle rap to express his lack of regret.
Hokit said he was “sure it wasn't” the right thing to do to insult the former First Lady but was proud the remarks had put his image on Trump's Truth Social posts. In one post, Hokit appeared in cartoon form alongside UFC chief Dana White in the White House briefing room.
Trump said over the weekend he had offered White the job of White House press secretary. White declined the frivolous offer.
“I'm here to take what's mine,” Hokit said. “If I've got to rub some people the wrong way, if I've got to say some (stuff) in the wrong location, it is what it is. Was it not a good location to say it? I mean, we're at the White House. That house represents freedom of speech. So it is what it is. I think it was the perfect location to say it.”
The 28-year-old Hokit is 10-0 in his MMA career and has won all six fights since joining UFC in 2025.
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