{"id":621160,"date":"2026-04-21T10:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T10:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/621160\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T10:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T10:22:08","slug":"heavyweight-paulo-costa-wants-to-replace-derrick-lewis-at-ufc-white-house-to-settle-josh-hokit-beef-no-bulls-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/621160\/","title":{"rendered":"Heavyweight Paulo Costa wants to replace Derrick Lewis at UFC White House to settle Josh Hokit beef: \u2018No bulls\u2014t\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former Middleweight title challenger made a serious splash at UFC 327<\/a> by officially moving to 205 pounds and smashing Azamat Murzakanov, the previously unbeaten Russian knockout artist who was knocking on the door of a title shot. It\u2019s debatably the best win of Costa\u2019s career and certainly his finest performance since beating Yoel Romero in 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite the newfound Light Heavyweight momentum, Costa is ready to jump all the way up to Heavyweight to settle his newfound beef with Josh Hokit. Just before Costa\u2019s big win, Hokit went to war with Curtis Blaydes in an immensely entertaining clash<\/a> so good it landed him on the UFC White House card versus Derrick Lewis. In the aftermath, Costa and Hokit began to argue over a stolen $100k bonus and Costa\u2019s high fight purse<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Seeing as Hokit is a small Heavyweight, Costa feels the time is perfect for him to replace Derrick Lewis and fight Hokit at the White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just let ufc knows if Derek Lewis gets out his fight for some reason I will step in at White House as heavyweight,\u201d Costa wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cNo bullshit, ain\u2019t lying.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cRight now, I think practically all the fans would like to see how I, who was perhaps the biggest middleweight in history, would fare against Hokit in the Heavyweight division without cutting any weight at the White House. wouldn\u2019t be surprised if I came in heavier than him. If Trump still wants [Derrick Lewis] there , book him with somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Costa is also a favorite of President Donald Trump<\/a>, so it\u2019s not impossible? It may be a bit random, but I do think Costa vs. Hokit is a more intriguing matchup than the original. That said, I can\u2019t imagine \u201cThe Black Beast\u201d is eager to pass up a paycheck on a massive card, and that contract is presumably already signed.<\/p>\n

Paulo Costa is an excellent backup option at worst, and perhaps he and Hokit can still meet somewhere down the line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former Middleweight title challenger made a serious splash at UFC 327 by officially moving to 205 pounds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,125620],"class_list":["post-621160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-white-house-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}