Josh Hokit’s volatile actions have shouted down his volatile words.
Saturday night in Miami, Hokit (9-0), a fast-, loud- and trash-talking MMA heavyweight who trains in Albuquerque at Jackson-Wink, defeated veteran Curtis Blaydes (19-6) by unanimous decision on UFC 327.
After the wildly entertaining fight, which produced a $1,000 performance bonus for Hokit and a $1,000 Fight of the Night bonus for each fighter, UFC President Dana White announced that Hokit has been added to the June 14 UFC Freedom Fights 250 card scheduled for the White House South Lawn.
Hokit (9-0) is scheduled to face another veteran UFC heavyweight, Derrick Lewis (29-13), on the White House card.
He’s the second Jackson-Wink fighter to be selected for the Freedom Fights card. Albuquerque featherweight Steve Garcia (19-5), riding a seven-fight win streak, is matched against Brazil’s Diego Lopez (27-8).
Hokit, a former Fresno State football player and a Bulldogs All-America wrestler, first invited controversy with comments before and after his Aug. 19 victory over Brazil’s Guilherme Uriel on Dana White’s Contender Series in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Before the fight, Hokit pronounced Brazilian women as beautiful and Brazilian men as stupid, opining that all UFC fighters should be required to learn English.
After his victory over Uriel by second-round TKO, a performance that earned him a UFC contract, Hokit said, “My opponents won’t be these lazy, boring heavyweights. My opponents will be sex traffickers, pedophiles, rapists.
“Hell, you can even throw the transgenders in there.”
Concluding his remarks in the Octagon after his Jan. 24 victory by first-round stoppage over Denzel Freeman, Hokit disparaged WNBA star Brittney Griner by questioning her gender.
During a scheduled media opportunity in Miami preceding Saturday’s card, Hokit took no questions — instead staging a 5 1/2-minute, profanity- and vulgarity-filled diatribe.
“Mama, mama, mama?” he said in falsetto. “You know who the best is, mama? The incredible Hoke’s the best, mama!”
Later, in a growling voice: “I’m just lettin’ everybody know how (expletive) down I am, homey. I’m the downest vato in the world, homey!”
Saturday, after his sensational victory over Blaydes, Hokit — donning shades and his trademark stars-and-stripes do-rag — ignored a question from post-fight interviewer Joe Rogan and launched into a rhyming, full-volume soliloquy, concluding, “I toot my own horn and beat my own drum, but if you think you can beat me in a fistfight, boy, is you dumb!”
White is on record as not liking Hokit’s shtick and said after Hokit-Blaydes that he hasn’t changed his opinion.
But, he said, Hokit’s value as a fighter trumps anything that comes out of his mouth.
“He walked the talk (Saturday), you know what I mean?” White said in an interview with mmafighting.com.
White said he’ll no longer criticize Hokit’s words or behavior.
“… It’s one thing to have a shtick, an act, whatever,” White said, “And it’s another thing to go in and fight the No. 5 ranked (heavyweight) in the world and who’s a bad dude, and do what he did to (Blaydes).”
Who’s the real Josh Hokit, beyond being a for-real fighter?