Hokit insults Topuria's ex-wife at UFC 250 presser, claims he was helping Gaethje

Josh Hokit forced Dana White to abruptly end the UFC Freedom 250 pre-fight press conference at the Lincoln Memorial after insulting Ilia Topuria’s ex-wife, with the unbeaten heavyweight later claiming the provocation was a deliberate attempt to destabilise the lightweight champion ahead of Sunday’s main event against Justin Gaethje at the White House.

Hokit, who fights at heavyweight and is not on the same card as Topuria in a competitive sense, opened his remarks by briefly praising the champion and apologising for earlier comments before delivering the personal insult. White immediately shut down the presser.

Speaking to The Schmo afterwards, Hokit framed the outburst as a patriotic favour to fellow American Gaethje. “You wanna be a weight bully? That’s the consequence,” he said. “You can’t have fun at the press conference. So now you’re all serious, and you’re getting mad at this guy that’s trolling you. We’ll see if it plays a factor in the fight. I was kind of helping out Justin Gaethje for America. I felt like that was necessary. I felt like it went well, though.”

The animosity between Hokit and Topuria predates this week. At a press conference last month, Hokit made unprovoked derogatory comments about Alex Pereira’s mother. Topuria, who has struck up a close friendship with Pereira, responded by throwing a glass of water at Hokit. In the aftermath of that incident, Hokit claimed he had engineered the confrontation to help Sean O’Malley — also fighting at the White House — lay the groundwork for a future clash with Topuria.

Hokit has developed a pattern of framing his provocations as acts of service to American fighters, though the logic has drawn scepticism given the unprovoked nature of his targets. Whether the latest stunt has any bearing on Topuria’s performance against Gaethje remains to be seen.

Hokit (9-0) meets Derrick Lewis (29-13) on Sunday at UFC Freedom 250 at the White House.