Josh Hokit didn’t blink when the UFC asked him about making a quick turnaround from his potential Fight of the Year against Curtis Blaydes to then accept a showdown with Derrick Lewis at the White House on June 14.
Obviously every fight is a risk but Hokit absorbed a whole lot of damage during that three-round battle against Blaydes and he’s now competing again just two months later with a spot on arguably the biggest UFC card of all-time. Blaydes, who has faced both fighters in the past, acknowledges that Hokit definitely surprised him during their back-and-forth battle but he cautions the always outspoken heavyweight from constantly welcoming those kinds of wars because it will eventually come back to haunt him.
That’s why Blaydes argues that Hokit might eventually be better off at 205 pounds.
“He has a good young, jaw,” Blaydes told MMA Fighting about Hokit. “You do that three or four times, that jaw is going to be gone. I don’t think he do that at heavyweight a bunch of times. He might better served going down to light heavyweight because they don’t hit as hard. Yeah, they’re faster but he’s got the wrestling. I don’t know if he can maintain, especially if he wants to fight the way that we just did, like if he uses the wrestling more and relies on that yeah, but then again he’s a smaller heavyweight.
“I just think long term, if I was his manager or his brother or whatever, someone in his circle, I would be having serious discussions about let’s give it a year but let’s think about going down to light heavyweight.”
That said, Blaydes definitely sees a path to victory for Hokit over Lewis given the trajectory their respective careers are following during recent fights.
While Hokit still sports an undefeated record in the UFC, Lewis is now 41 years old and he’s gone just 3-5 over his past eight fights in the octagon. Blaydes knows from personal experience how much underestimating Lewis can cost you but he’s just not sure “The Black Beast” is the same fighter now as he was when they first met back in 2021.
“Hokit entering [the fight], his jaw is not going to be 100%,” Blaydes said. “That’s scary going against a guy like Derrick Lewis but then again, the Derrick Lewis that we just saw against Waldo [Cortes-Acosta], he looks like the motivation is gone. If you get a Derrick Lewis that doesn’t really care and just allows you to take him down at will, he can win like that.
“But if he gets a motivated Derrick Lewis that comes in hunting the big, heavy knockout … I’m going back and forth because we don’t know the version of Derrick Lewis that we’re going to get. If we get the version that I had to fight, I’d go with Derrick. But if we get the one that showed up against Waldo, I go Hokit.”
If Hokit wins, he’s going to be knocking on the door to title contention at heavyweight because he’s already become one of the most talked about and polarizing fighters on the entire UFC roster while building an impressive resume along the way.
But Blaydes isn’t ready to crown Hokit as a future champion just yet given his limited body of work compared to many of the other top heavyweights in the UFC.
“Not yet,” Blaydes said about Hokit. “We had a great fight but styles make matchups. Is he able to do that against [Alexander] Volkov? Is he able to do that against a Derrick Lewis? We’re going to see. Is he going to be able to do that against Waldo? I do believe he’d beat Waldo because Waldo is just a slightly smaller, younger version of Derrick Lewis but we don’t know. We don’t have enough information. It’s all projections.
“I wouldn’t be willing to guarantee it. Does he have the potential? Yes, obviously but I’m not 100% on that one.”
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