O'Malley admits he froze near Pereira as Hokit claims UFC White House solidarity

Sean O’Malley has admitted he failed to support teammate Josh Hokit during a heated press conference altercation with Alex Pereira and Ilia Topuria in Newark last month, saying proximity to one of MMA’s most dangerous knockout artists left him uncharacteristically quiet. Both men compete on the same UFC Freedom 250 card at the White House on June 14.

Hokit (9-0) sparked the incident by launching an unprovoked verbal attack on Pereira during the promotional event. Topuria, stepping in to defend Pereira, responded by throwing a glass of water at Hokit, who was subsequently escorted from the press conference before the situation escalated further. Hokit later argued that O’Malley had missed a prime opportunity to set up a future fight against Topuria by not joining in.

O’Malley, speaking to MMAFighting.com, acknowledged the criticism with characteristic self-deprecation. “When you are that close to Alex Pereira, you don’t really think about talking s—t,” he said. “I’m like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna sit here and f—ing shut up.’ But he is not wrong, I should have been on team Hokit. He is actually right. Maybe I should have stepped back a few feet, maybe gotten behind [Hokit], and then started talking s—t. I f—ed up.”

Hokit has since welcomed O’Malley’s belated show of solidarity and predicted that the former bantamweight champion would stop Topuria if the two ever met inside the octagon.

On June 14, Hokit faces Derrick Lewis (29-13) while O’Malley (19-3) takes on Aiemann Zahabi (14-2). The card’s co-main event features Alex Pereira (13-3) in an interim heavyweight title fight against Ciryl Gane (13-2), with Ilia Topuria (17-0) defending his lightweight title against Justin Gaethje (27-5) in the main event.