Pereira made it clear he\u2019s not a fan of Hokit,<\/a> telling reporters, \u201cWe can\u2019t remove him out of the card on Sunday, he\u2019s already in there, so he\u2019s going to fight, but I\u2019ve just heard a thing or two\u2014I don\u2019t even know if he\u2019s going to be a part of this organization going forward. He\u2019s going to fight, but I don\u2019t know, I\u2019ve heard some things here or there, maybe not even worth talking about because I don\u2019t even know if he\u2019s going to be there.\u201d<\/p>\nPereira didn\u2019t clarify what he meant, though he seemed to suggest that the UFC could part ways with Hokit soon. At least that\u2019s how Hokit interpreted it, as he responded to Pereira shortly after.<\/p>\n
\u201cPereira could say whatever,\u201d Hokit said on an episode of UFC Freedom 250 Embedded. \u201cWhen you put on a fight like how I put on last fight, I mean, I don\u2019t think I\u2019m going anywhere. I just signed an eight-fight contract as well, so he\u2019s just talking just to talk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though Hokit\u2019s over-the-top promotional antics may irk some, there\u2019s no questioning he\u2019s shown plenty of promise as an undefeated contender in the UFC\u2019s heavyweight division. In just his third UFC fight, Hokit was given a massive step up in competition as he faced perennial contender Curtis Blaydes this past April. He passsed the test in impressive fashion, engaging in a non-stop slugfest with Blaydes and leaving UFC 327 with a unanimous decision win, a pair of $100,000 Fight Night bonuses, and an immediate booking with Derrick Lewis at UFC White House.<\/p>\n
Pereira fights Ciryl Gane for an interim heavyweight title in this Sunday\u2019s co-main event and if both Pereira and Hokit are victorious, it\u2019s not out of the realm of possibility they could clash in the future, pending the return of undisputed champion Tom Aspinall.<\/p>\n
Hokit wondered if Pereira\u2019s vague comments were a sign of uncertainty.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe he\u2019s running away,\u201d Hokit said. \u201cMaybe he\u2019s scared. Maybe he hopes that [UFC CEO] Dana [White] kicks me out. It doesn\u2019t matter what I say, because the most important thing is still what these fists talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josh Hokit is here to stay, whether Alex Pereira likes it or not. At Wednesday\u2019s media day for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":732434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-732433","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"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732433","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=732433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/732434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=732433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=732433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=732433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}