{"id":653469,"date":"2026-05-06T14:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T14:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/653469\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T14:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T14:28:14","slug":"sean-strickland-criticizes-josh-hokit-for-acting-like-fcking-jake-paul-when-he-was-13-hokit-responds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/653469\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean Strickland criticizes Josh Hokit for \u2018acting like f*cking Jake Paul when he was 13,\u2019 Hokit responds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Sean Strickland is one of the most outspoken fighters on the entire UFC roster but even he believes there are limits when it comes to saying crazy stuff to get attention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">He didn\u2019t have to look any further than fast-rising heavyweight star Josh Hokit, who is undefeated in the UFC and about to fight Derrick Lewis at the UFC White House card in June, but the former NFL player turned fighter has built a persona around rehearsed lines and outlandish behavior that even Dana White has said he doesn\u2019t enjoy whatsoever. Strickland, who faces Khamzat Chimaev in the UFC 328 main event on Saturday, took aim at Hokit during a media scrum on Tuesday while comparing the heavyweight prospect to online streamers and influencers who do just about anything to get attention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cIt\u2019s like Josh Hokit. It\u2019s like dude, you\u2019re a grown ass man,\u201d Strickland said. \u201cYou\u2019re almost 30 years old and you\u2019re acting like f*cking Jake Paul when he was 13. Like stop, bro. You made it. People know who you are. Just stop. You don\u2019t got to go interview homeless people and be f*cking weird. Just fight now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Of course, Hokit has seemingly embraced all of the attention he\u2019s received.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Whether that\u2019s when he\u2019s invoking his best <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7iENNBPJcZE\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Thuganomics era John Cena<\/a> by rhyming every line during a press conference, or media day appearance, or threatening to throw down with Jiri Prochazka just days before both of them are scheduled to compete on the same card.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Hokit rarely drops his act for anybody but considering the UFC matched him up against a former title challenger like Curtis Blaydes in only his third fight for the promotion and now he\u2019s facing Lewis on the UFC White House card, something must be working.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">It\u2019s just not working for Strickland whatsoever.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cThe thing I don\u2019t like about Josh and I\u2019ve met Josh, I\u2019ve trained with Josh \u2014 he\u2019s actually a really likeable guy,\u201d Strickland said. \u201cHe came to the gym, he\u2019s a really nice guy, consider him a friend of mine. We follow each other on [Instagram].<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cBut at some point it\u2019s such a fabricated image, it reminds you of a WWE skit, that I just want it to die.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Strickland might want to check his followers after those comments because Hokit didn\u2019t waste any time responding with his own challenge aimed at the former UFC middleweight champion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cLet\u2019s fight\u2026 I\u2019ll show you the difference between me and Jake Paul,\u201d Hokit wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201c[Sean] Strickland, complaining about a persona is like a circus clown complaining about too many balloons. You\u2019re just mad because my WWE skit has better ratings than your personality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sean Strickland is one of the most outspoken fighters on the entire UFC roster but even he believes&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396,14855],"class_list":["post-653469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653469","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=653469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}