{"id":497371,"date":"2026-02-25T00:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T00:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/497371\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T00:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T00:02:08","slug":"undefeated-ufc-fighter-given-massive-opportunity-with-high-profile-ufc-327-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/497371\/","title":{"rendered":"Undefeated UFC Fighter Given Massive Opportunity With High-Profile UFC 327 Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the UFC\u2019s fastest-rising heavyweight contenders will have the chance to break straight into the division\u2019s Top 5 when he competes at UFC 327. <\/p>\n

Scheduled to take place at the Kaseya Center in Miami, FL on April 11, UFC 327 will be headlined by a flyweight title bout <\/a>between reigning titleholder Joshua Van and Tatsuro Taira, which was announced during the broadcast for UFC Houston last Saturday. <\/p>\n

In addition to confirming several other fights that were reported in recent weeks<\/a>, today the UFC revealed that heavyweight contender Josh Hokit will get a massive step up in competition<\/a> at UFC 327 when he takes on divisional stalwart Curtis Blaydes. <\/p>\n

Josh Hokit Could Break Into Heavyweight Rankings At UFC 327<\/p>\n

Still only eight fights into his professional MMA career, Hokit has quickly established himself as a heavyweight on the rise thanks to both his in-cage performances and his work on the microphone. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Incredible Hok\u201d made his debut at Bellator 300 in 2023 and got his hand raised via third-round submission. He returned the following year and scored another submission-victory before moving on to the LFA, where he scored three first-round finishes during the first half of 2025 and went on to win a UFC contract when he also stopped Guilherme Uriel in the second round of their Dana White\u2019s Contender Series fight in August. <\/p>\n

\"Josh<\/p>\n

Josh Hokit (red gloves) reacts after the fight against Denzel Freeman (blue gloves) during UFC 324 at T-Mobile Arena. | Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Hokit scored his fifth win of the year when he made his formal UFC debut in November and knocked out Max Gimenis in just 56 seconds, and the 28-year-old earned his second \u201cPerformance of the Night\u201d bonus out of as many UFC fights when he stopped Denzel Freeman at UFC 324.<\/p>\n

Curtis Blaydes Set For Risky Fight With “The Incredible Hok”<\/p>\n

As impressive as he\u2019s looked in the Octagon thus far, Hokit is getting a fairly dramatic step up in competition at UFC 327 with #4-ranked heavyweight contender Blaydes.<\/p>\n

A member of the UFC roster since 2016, Blaydes holds wins over a number of the heavyweight division\u2019s top names and fought Tom Aspinall for the interim heavyweight belt at UFC 304. After being knocked out just a minute into that fight, \u201cRazor\u201d returned last June and spoiled Rizan Kuniev\u2019s promotional debut when he took a split decision over Kuniev at UFC Baku.<\/p>\n

\"Curtis<\/p>\n

Curtis Blaydes reacts after defeating Jailton Almeida during UFC 299 at Kaseya Center. | Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n

A win over Blaydes would establish Hokit as a legitimate force in the UFC heavyweight division, and the fight is an intriguing addition to a UFC 327 card that is currently shaping up like this.<\/p>\n

UFC 327 Fight Card<\/p>\n

\u2022\tMain Event: Joshua Van vs. Tatsuro Taira \u2013 For the UFC Flyweight Championship<\/p>\n

\u2022\tDominick Reyes vs. Johnny Walker<\/p>\n

\u2022\tTatiana Suarez vs. Lupita Godinez<\/p>\n

\u2022\tAzamat Murzakanov vs. Paulo Costa<\/p>\n

\u2022\tCurtis Blaydes vs. Josh Hokit<\/p>\n

\u2022\tCub Swanson vs. Nate Landwehr<\/p>\n

\u2022\tKyle Daukaus vs. Vicente Luque<\/p>\n

\u2022\tKevin Holland vs. Randy Brown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the UFC\u2019s fastest-rising heavyweight contenders will have the chance to break straight into the division\u2019s Top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":["post-497371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}