Josh Hokit, the No. 6 UFC heavyweight, unloaded on Alex Pereira after the ex-champion started campaigning for another shot at Ciryl Gane, a fight the Frenchman won inside two rounds only weeks ago.
“As a fan, that fight makes no f***ing sense. I watched you get demolished,” Hokit wrote on social media.
“How about you get one f***ing win in this weight class before you are gifted another title shot.”
The contender did not stop there. In a separate post, he took aim at UFC matchmaking itself.
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“When UFC starts letting guys that try to feed carrots to a school bus…to do their matchmaking, this company is f***ing cooked,” he posted, later adding that “neither Ilia Topuria nor Alex Pereira deserve a f***ing title shot in their next fight.”
What Pereira actually said
Pereira, who was chasing history as the first fighter to hold UFC titles in three weight classes, was stopped by Gane in the second round of their interim heavyweight bout at UFC Freedom 250 on 15 June 2026, an event staged at the White House. Referee Herb Dean waved it off after a barrage that included strikes Pereira later insisted had landed illegally to the back of his head.
Weeks on, the Brazilian is refusing to move on. In a video posted this week, he said the rematch is the only bout that makes sense.
“The fight that makes sense is Ciryl Gane,” Pereira said. “I’m going to work on that and from what I’m seeing, it’s something that’s going to happen.”
“How the last fight ended, there were illegal shots. I think now with another opportunity I can come back.”
Hokit’s counter-proposal: Pavlovich
Rather than a straight rematch, Hokit floated Sergei Pavlovich as a more suitable opponent for Pereira, describing the Russian as “basically a striker and way less athletic than Ciryl.”
Hokit, a former NFL player, has watched Pereira parachute into the heavyweight title picture off the back of a light-heavyweight win, then get flattened in his debut at the new weight.
Why the rematch push is realistic anyway
The awkward truth for Hokit and the rest of the heavyweight top ten is that the timing might work for Pereira regardless.
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Undisputed champion Tom Aspinall’s return has been held up by an eye issue that has kept his medical clearance uncertain. Gane, meanwhile, is already publicly open to running it back with Pereira while Aspinall remains sidelined, an outcome that would leave contenders such as Hokit and Pavlovich waiting in line.
Nothing about the Gane-Pereira 2 booking has been confirmed by the UFC.
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