Josh Hokit Demands UFC Strip Champion to Clear Way for Title Fight
His social-media rant pressures the promotion to settle an inactive-champion standoff that has stalled the heavyweight division.
Overview
- On Friday Hokit posted a four-part thread on X calling for the UFC to strip the sidelined champion and to book him against interim titleholder Ciryl Gane for a vacant belt.
- Tom Aspinall has not fought since an eye-poke no contest with Gane at UFC 321, and Gane won the interim heavyweight title by stopping Alex Pereira at UFC Freedom 250, leaving the division split between an inactive champ and an interim champ.
- Hokit is 10-0 and climbed to a top contender spot after he stopped Derrick Lewis at UFC Freedom 250, which he cited as the basis for pressing the promotion for an immediate title chance.
- The UFC has not announced any change to Aspinall’s status or scheduled a Hokit-Gane matchup, so the division remains unresolved and any title vacancy would be a promotion decision.
- Hokit’s demands highlight two pressure points for the UFC: how it defines medical inactivity or holdouts for stripping titles and how public calls and cross-sport links, including references to boxing figures, can shape matchmaking and fighters’ careers.