When Sean Strickland thinks you’ve gone too far with your trash talk it’s probably time to re-evaluate things.
This is where rising heavyweight contender Josh Hokit finds himself after a failed night (Fri., May 8, 2026) of rage baiting comments at UFC’s White House press conference in Newark, New Jersey. What was supposed to be a nice pre-fight introduction to all the fighters competing on the upcoming Freedom 250 fight card on June 14 turned into an unfiltered word vomit session by the fighter known
as “The Incredible Hok.”
While fans expected to hear Hokit attack White House counterpart, heavyweight knockout king Derrick Lewis, they didn’t expect to hear the brash contender go after the likes of Alex Pereira, Ilia Topuria, and Michael Chandler, who were both sitting on stage as well. Hokit eventually made comments about Pereira’s mother, Chandler’s wife, and Topuria’s ex, which promoted “El Matador” to strike Hokit in the face with an onstage object (see it HERE). Security eventually ushered Hokit off stage as UFC CEO Dana White called an early end to the press conference.
After seeing Hokit’s actions at the press conference a list of UFC fighters took to social media to show their disgust. This included none other than Sean Strickland, who will challenge Khamzat Chimaev for the undisputed UFC middleweight title Saturday night at UFC 328. Strickland is one of the most outspoken and unfiltered fighters in UFC history so for him to call Hokit out you know it must have been bad.
Check it out below:
“This is wild coming from me but Josh goes way too far,” wrote Strickland. “Chandlers wife, Ilia Topuria ex…I know it’s the WWE thing but it’s too much.”
