Israel Adesanya understands the importance of showing off your personality to make it to the top, but he wonders if Josh Hokit might have gone too far at UFC White House.
Hokit put on a dominant performance this past Sunday against Derrick Lewis, then took the microphone afterwards for what has become a customary colorful post-fight promo. He capped off his speech with an offensive statement about former First Lady Michelle Obama, which threatened to overshadow the work Hokit did in the octagon.
Reacting
to the news on Demetrious Johnson’s MightyCast, Adesanya joked that Hokit’s words could put him in grave danger someday.
“His post-fight speech was crazy, like, at the White House,” Adesanya said. “I was like, man, this guy, he’s trying to put a red dot on his own head. The last person that said that ended up dead was Joan Rivers. Anyway, I don’t want to go too deep into that. … Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom of consequences, but I think he can handle the consequences.”
The undefeated Hokit has soared up the heavyweight rankings since making his UFC debut in 2025, going 4-0 with wins over perennial contenders Lewis and Curtis Blaydes. Along the way, Hokit has gained popularity and notoriety for his unfiltered remarks and bizarre persona switches which, whether one finds them amusing or not, has made him a frequent topic of conversation during fight weeks.
Against Lewis, Hokit brought his jester attitude into the cage, at least as far as Adesanya is concerned. “The Last Stylebender” thinks Hokit could have scored an armbar submission at the end of Round 1, but chose to prolong the show instead.
“He sold it, I knew it,” Adesanya said. “From the beginning, I was like, ‘He can finish this,’ and he starts screaming, like, the last four seconds, I was like, ‘OK, he wants this to go to the second round.’ … I knew he was playing, I knew he was playing, because it was fully extended. You know how to finish an armbar, even I know how to finish an armbar, but he just kept it, and the scream kind of sold it for me. This guy, he’s just a fugazi.
“That fight, he came in just hot. He came in, flipped him off at the staredown or before the staredown and he’s a guy that regardless of the schtick or the character, the guy can fight.”
It’s unclear what’s next for Hokit, who made a quick turnaround after the Blaydes win when President Donald Trump asked UFC CEO Dana White to find an opponent so Lewis, one of Trump’s favorite fighters, could compete at the White House. Hokit has worked hard to build a feud with former two-division champion Alex Pereira, who has been mostly dismissive of a potential matchup.
Pereira fell short in his attempt to become the UFC’s first-ever three-division titleholder after being knocked out by Ciryl Gane in their interim heavyweight championship bout Sunday, so Adesanya thinks it’s more likely “Poatan” returns to light heavyweight while keeping a future fight with Hokit in his back pocket.
“I reckon he’s got the thing with Hokit, but I say go back to 205 because that’s where he does best, I think,” Adesanya said. “And also he can go back to heavyweight, even the whole Hokit thing. The way Hokit just went at him at the press conference a few weeks ago and then again and again, it’s like, he’s got us thinking about him now. Now I want to see that fight. That’s a big fight.”
