UFC President and CEO Dana White kicked off Friday’s UFC Freedom 250 press conference with a special announcement: bonuses for the show will be going up.
While the UFC instituted $100,000 Fight of the Night and Performance of the Night bonuses this year, even more will be on the line on June 14.
“Crypto.com just put up a million dollars for UFC White House fight bonuses. So the guys that are involved in the Fight of the Night at the White House will split $600,000,” White said at the start of Friday’s presser. Presumably, if the crypto firm did put a million dollars on the line, Performance bonuses will be $200,000 each, though White did not confirm that number. “Congratulations boys,” he finished.
The rest of the press conference, well, that became a raucous affair once heavyweight Josh Hokit got involved. Hokit originally focused his gaze first on opponent Derrick Lewis, then on Alex Pereira, but it was Ilia Topuria, coming to Pereira’s defense, who got into it with the heavyweight.
“Derrick Lewis ain’t tight. That’s why he p*ssied out and took a dive in his last fight. I’m going to retire him, then he’s going sell old-man asswipes,” Hokit sing-songed about his opponent. “Because his knees look like a broke toy, and on June 14, I’m going to beat the sh*t out of the ‘Black Pillsbury Doughboy.’”
Lewis played a clip on his phone of Samuel L. Jackson from Pulp Fiction in response, shouting “say ‘what’ one more time” before claiming that “I didn’t even understand nothing he said.”
With his sense of humor, Hokit isn’t about to get under Lewis’ skin much. The same couldn’t be said for Topuria. When Hokit was asked about getting in Alex Pereira’s face, he responded with some sexual vulgarities, then claimed “I’m going to ‘chama’ on your momma. This guy’s the baddest on the planet? Look at how I speak to him. Like my dog. Like my b*tch.’”
“I have nothing to say about this guy. We were giving an interview earlier today, this guy just goes right by me, starts saying things, I looked at him in his the eye and said ‘chama.’ Why didn’t he do anything when I was there?” Pereira questioned through his translator.
When Hokit countered by claiming Pereira spoke English, Topuria verbally intervened, then stood up, and moved towards Hokit. Trading more verbally (Hokit called Topuria a midget, Topuria called Hokit a “little b*tch,”) Topuria then took something off the stage of threw it at Hokit, hitting him in the side of the face. That had security hauling Hokit off-stage, but not before he yelled “you couldn’t find your wife in Miami” to Topuria, who recently went through an ugly public divorce.
Pereira actually shook Ilia Topuria’s hand when all was said and done, but it’s a reminder than Hokit seems able to get under just about anyone’s skin. Except perhaps Derrick Lewis.