Josh Hokit is making his move at heavyweight, publicly urging the UFC to move past sidelined champion Tom Aspinall and line him up for a title shot against Ciryl Gane.
Aspinall underwent surgery after an accidental eye poke in his title fight with Gane at UFC 321 in October. Since then, Gane has captured the interim heavyweight belt with a second-round TKO win over Alex Pereira at UFC Freedom 250, while Hokit scored a knockout of Derrick Lewis on the same card.
Hokit took direct aim at Aspinall and laid out his plan in a fiery callout. "This crybaby has lost all of his aura. Here's an idea @ufc . Cut Tom. Ciryl is the undisputed champ anyways IMO. He made Tom quit. Tom's manager is trying to play games. Give me Ciryl in September and when I win I will give @AlexPereiraUFC a chance to get his self esteem back in Nov/Dec. At least then we will have a champ that is down to fight all of the time."
Hokit also targeted Pereira, who has protested his stoppage loss to Gane and criticized referee Herb Dean over alleged illegal blows. "Alex Periera is a broken man… imagine how much more broken he’ll be after I beat him… he started as an alcoholic and he will end as an alcoholic…"
Hokit is currently 10-0 in MMA and 4-0 in the UFC. Aspinall holds a 15-3 professional record with an 8-1 mark in the UFC, while Gane sits at 14-2 overall and 11-2 in the promotion. Pereira is 13-4 in MMA and 10-3 in the UFC.
