Close, but no cigar!
Undersized heavyweight Josh Hokit threw everything including the kitchen sink at champion Ciryl Gane at UFC 336, stunning the Frenchman with his tenacious offense. But if Hokit expected Gane to break, he was sorely disappointed. “Bon Gamin” got a second wind in the championship rounds that cinched him a unanimous decision win with 48-47×3 scores (watch the highlights here).
All three judges had Ciryl Gane winning rounds four and five, but the first three rounds were a different
story. Hokit was up 29-28 after three rounds, although the judges disagreed on which rounds he’d won. Judges Sal D’Amato and Chris Lee had Hokit winning rounds one and three, while Adrian Castro gave Hokit rounds two and three.
That tells you just how close the first three rounds were. Hokit was unrelenting in his offense, pushing Gane back endlessly and walking through punches to land his own. How “The Incredible Hok” managed to eat as many punches as he did is a mystery to us, but he did and was landing some corkers of his own.
But round four saw a big momentum shift. Hokit found himself trapped in clinches more often. His punches lacked pop. And Gane started returning fire with punches and knees to the body, further sapping Hokit’s cardio.
Hokit used his pace to beat Curtis Blaydes in their Fight of the Year contender bout back in April, and it looks like he tried to do the same thing to Gane at UFC 334. It almost worked, but this was Hokit’s first time fighting five rounds in the UFC. In comparison, Gane has gone five rounds three times during his UFC tenure, and the experience made the difference.
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