“The Incredible Hok” put on an incredible fight at UFC 327, and despite his cringe-worthy personas, he’s now a budding star in the UFC.
Josh Hokit put on a double-bonus winning performance in Miami, claiming Fight of the Night and Performance of the Night in a slugfest with Curtis Blaydes. The fight started hot and neither man ever stopped swinging, but Hokit had the clear decision and $200,000 in bonus money in the end.
He also has a claim to one half of what some have called the best heavyweight fight of all time, up there with Bigfoot Silva and Mark Hunt.
UFC CEO and President Dana White, meanwhile, will no longer speak out against Hokit’s antics. In fact, he’s instead added the heavyweight to the White House card.
“He walked the talk tonight. When people come out and say stupid sh*t and have sort of schtick, it’s not my thing,” stated White, speaking backstage with media outlets including Cageside Press. “But nothing but respect to both of those men tonight, and that fight was unbelievable. You won’t hear a word out of me from here on out about him. Like I said, he walked the talk.”
Before reporters could get another question in, White added that “it’s one thing to have a schtick, whatever, and it’s another thing to go and fight the number five guy in the world who is a bad dude and do what he did to him tonight.”
The UFC exec was in good spirits following UFC 327 in Miami, and for good reason. Every fight delivered, even the rather weird main event that saw Carlos Ulberg suffer an injury than win anyway. Hokit, however, wound up the biggest star, and now has a date with Derrick Lewis at Freedom 250.
So much for not matchmaking on the night of the fight. The event wasn’t even over, in fact, when White announced Lewis vs. Hokit. He later revealed to the media how it all came to be.
“So what’s crazy is, organically, about an hour before that, the President [Donald Trump] said to me ‘why is Derrick Lewis not on the White House card.’ I said ‘I’ll be back in five minutes.’”
White called Lewis, who joked that “politics kept me off the White House card.” Lewis then agreed to fight at the event, and the search was on for an opponent. After Hokit’s fight, Joe Rogan questioned on air if there was still a spot open on the White House card. “I go, ‘holy sh*t,’” stated White. “So I grab Mick [Maynard, UFC matchmaker] and said ‘go back there and talk, see if he’s in.’”
Hokit, according to White, “was getting into an ambulance and said ‘yes.’”
As to why President Trump likes “The Black Beast” so much, “he’s a fan. He loves Derrick Lewis, he likes his personality, he likes the way he fights.”