Josh Hokit Says Heavyweight Title Matters More Than Making 205
Josh Hokit says he is sitting at 237 pounds and could drop to 205 without much trouble. He still wants the heavyweight title first.
The undefeated 10-0 contender told Ariel Helwani that the cut is not the issue. The point of staying at heavyweight is the belt, and what he thinks the belt is supposed to mean.
“Sht, like 237,” Hokit said when asked how much he weighs. “Do you think you could make 205? Sht, probably easy.”
That answer came with a lecture. Hokit does not treat weight classes as sacred. He treats them as cover.
“Why is there weight classes?” he said. “People are hiding behind it.”
He pointed back to the start of the sport. Fighters signed up and fought. The scale was not the first conversation.
“Where this game started, the people just said they signed up to fight each other,” Hokit said. “It didn’t matter what the weight class, and it’s like, that’s as primal as it gets.”
The comments landed in the same Helwani interview where Hokit is preparing for Ciryl Gane on November 14. UFC 334 is booked for Madison Square Garden, with Gane defending the undisputed heavyweight title after Tom Aspinall vacated it.
Hokit said he believes the company wants him to win that night. Helwani put it to him directly. Hokit did not dodge it.
“Oh, yeah, because they know what they’re going to get,” he said.
What they would get, in his version, is a champion who talks about leaving the division after he has the belt. He sketched a path that is not on any UFC contract.
“I’ll be champion, then I’ll go to 205, save that division, then I’ll create my own division,” Hokit said. “Let’s meet at 225, and now we’re fighting middleweights.”
He called 225 close enough to where he already stands. He also said some middleweights walk around that size and are bigger than he is. None of that is a booked fight. It is Hokit selling the idea that he would not hide behind a limit once he has the hardware.
“There’s endless possibility with me,” he said.
He framed himself as the reason other fighters are getting louder. In his telling, they watch him get paid for personality and start doing the same.
“I’m kind of like a trendsetter,” Hokit said. “They’re seeing me do it. They’re like, sht, he’s getting rewarded for that sht. Let’s do it too.”
He still put the fight first. Talk is extra. The octagon is the job.
“At the end of the day, you got to put on a good fight,” he said. “And everything else is like a cherry on top.”
The sharpest line in the clip was aimed at Ilia Topuria. Hokit called him a 145-pound champion talking down to a heavyweight. Topuria is a former two-division titleholder who last fought at lightweight and lost the 155-pound belt to Justin Gaethje in June. Hokit’s wording was his own.
“What is a 145 pound champion talking to a heavyweight like that?” Hokit said. “Don’t get that sh*t twisted. Different day and age, you’re extinct. I wipe you off the face of the earth.”
He said the modern sport lets a smaller champion hide behind a belt and still play the tough guy. That is the part he wants to push back against.
“The heavyweight is the baddest man on the planet,” Hokit said. “So I’m trying to bring that mentality back.”
That is the entire pitch. Make 205 if he wants. Invent a 225 class if the roster dries up. None of it starts until he beats Gane.
Hokit trains at Jackson-Wink MMA and has gone 4-0 since arriving in the UFC, including a TKO of Derrick Lewis at UFC Freedom 250. Gane is 14-2 with one no-contest and holds the belt Hokit is chasing.
A 205-pound run would only matter if he leaves Madison Square Garden as champion. Until then, the only official number that counts is the heavyweight limit on November 14.
