Alex Pereira doubts he’ll ever have to deal with Josh Hokit in the cage.
This Sunday at UFC White House, both fighters feature in important heavyweight bouts, with Pereira moving up a division to battle Ciryl Gane for an interim title, and Hokit looking to stay undefeated when he faces knockout king Derrick Lewis. Ahead of the historic event, Hokit has done his best to be a thorn in Pereira’s side, even as “Poatan” has mostly ignored him.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Hokit believes his efforts to instigate a matchup with Pereira are bound to pay off.
“It’s inevitable,” Hokit said. “We’re going to fight one day. I know he knows it.
“And Alex Pereira and his BBL can go to Hell. I’m the lion, he’s the weak gazelle. I’m going to beat him until he swells. I’m going to put his head in the microwave that’s going to give off a pizza smell.”
Pereira hasn’t been able to completely ignore Hokit’s advances as the two had to be held apart at a recent UFC White House press conference that also saw lightweight champion Ilia Topuria become involved as he expressed his annoyance with Hokit’s antics.
On Wednesday, Pereira addressed Hokit’s challenge. Reluctantly.
“You know, this is nothing personal, I just wanted to make sure that I talked about this,” Pereira said via a Portuguese translator. “I don’t even like to talk about this guy. It’s more for everybody because people just keep asking the question and again, I’m just addressing the situation since you asked. I try not even to think about it or entertain anything about him because there’s no reason for it.
“We can’t remove him out of the card on Sunday, he’s already in there, so he’s going to fight, but I’ve just heard a thing or two—I don’t even know if he’s going to be a part of this organization going forward. He’s going to fight, but I don’t know, I’ve heard some things here or there, maybe not even worth talking about because I don’t even know if he’s going to be there.”
Pereira didn’t clarify exactly what he meant by Hokit not being “part of this organization going forward,” but he doubled down on his disapproval of Hokit’s promotional tactics.
“There’s a huge audience that watches this, there are children, there are families, there are people, and a lot of the things he does and says are just very disrespectful, so I think I don’t know,” Pereira said.
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