Oh, how fortune has smiled upon Josh Hokit at UFC 327.
Hokit had made a name for himself over the past year by knocking out relative unknowns on the prelim portion of UFC. Actually that’s not quite correct. The wins themselves didn’t drive too much attention. But his outside the cage shenanigans did. “The Incredible Hok” vacillated between a corny 80s pro wrestler shtick and Colby Covington persona on steroids. In an era where fighters saying questionable things has become the norm, Hokit took it to another
realm.
Leading into UFC 327 — Hokit’s first fight on a main card, against legit gatekeeper Curtis Blaydes no less — Josh spent the week acting the fool, harassing other fighters across fight week. His media day interview was less an interview than an insane diatribe, one that left many feeling extreme cringe.
Asked about Hokit at the UFC 327 press conference, UFC CEO Dana White flatly said “It’s not my thing. You know, it’s his thing, not my thing. You can do all this type of stuff but what matters is Saturday and the fight, how do you perform on Saturday?”
The answer is pretty damn well. One of the quirks of MMA is that when two powerful wrestlers are matched up, they end up ditching their bread and butter and engaging in a stand up war. That’s exactly what Hokit and Blaydes did for three wild rounds, with Hokit earning a win with 29-28 scores on all three judges scorecards. All of a sudden the guy fans could barely tolerate paying attention to became a hot commodity.
Fans breathlessly declared it a potential Fight of the Year candidate. The UFC didn’t just award Hokit and Blaydes Fight of the Night honors, they gave Hokit a Performance of the Night bonus … which is crazy because those have historically gone to fighters that finish their opponent. And Dana White? He added Hokit to the White House card after his win.
“Hokit vs. Derrick Lewis was just added to the White House card in the last 10 minutes,” White said on Instagram Live while UFC 327 was still underway. “President Trump built half of that fight, and Rogan built the other half. Both guys have accepted and agreed to the fight. So we’re adding one more to the White House card: Hokit vs. Derrick Lewis. Pretty bad–s how that played out organically during the fight.”
We gotta admit, Hokit’s antics did generate attention during fight week, but the public perception to most of it was overwhelmingly negative. Or at least we thought so. The almighty metrics did move, proving once again that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. And then Hokit capitalized on his spotlight at UFC 327 by going all out in the cage, becoming an overnight special attraction in the process. Will the bloom come off that rose once we have to listen to Hokit for the next two months coming into UFC White House? Quite possibly.
But as Dana White always says, if you don’t like him, you can tune in and hope Derrick Lewis knocks him out on June 14th.
