Alex Pereira suggests he's open to fighting Josh Hokit, the American MMA star responds

Alex Pereira and Josh Hokit entered a heated feud in the buildup to the UFC Freedom 250 event.

Hokit seemed to initiate it, directing several jibes at "Poatan" and even making a few personal remarks about the Brazilian fighter's mother.

Both competed against different opponents at UFC Freedom 250, which transpired at the White House in Washington, D.C., on June 14.

Hokit beat Derrick Lewis via second-round TKO on the card. Meanwhile, Pereira suffered a second-round TKO defeat against Ciryl Gane in their interim UFC heavyweight title matchup that co-headlined the fight card. 

In the aftermath of the UFC White House event, Pereira has now addressed the possibility of his fighting Hokit. 

Alex Pereira eyes Ciryl Gane rematch, but he's open to fighting Josh Hokit

Former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira made an in-studio appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show this week. Accompanied by Plinio Cruz, his coach and translator, Pereira opened up about a myriad of topics. 

The ex-Glory Kickboxing middleweight and light heavyweight champion reaffirmed that he was wronged by Referee Herb Dean at UFC Freedom 250. He highlighted that Dean didn't appropriately penalize Ciryl Gane for the latter's allegedly illegal maneuvers. 

Pereira reiterated that Gane landed several strikes to the back of his head, which is illegal in the sport of MMA. 

Ariel Helwani chimed in and asked whether Pereira would be interested in facing Josh Hokit if the immediate rematch against Gane didn't materialize. Pereira seemed open to fighting the American combatant. He stated: 

"I expressed myself since the beginning. It doesn't matter to me. My contract is signed with the UFC. Whoever they put to fight me, I'm gonna fight." 

Additionally, Helwani appeared to question Pereira regarding the highly personal comments Hokit made about his mother. The legendary Brazilian striking savant replied by saying: 

"No. I know how to keep my cool, keep my mind in a cool spot. I'm not the type of guy -- I had opportunities, like, people talk about the press conference. Nobody was really on top of me over there."

Pereira continued, "If I wanted to, I could have just stand up, slap him on the face, kick him in the head, do whatever I want. But I know how to keep my cool. For sure, if he was in my situation, he'd probably try to do something like that." 

 

Watch Alex Pereira discuss a possible fight against Josh Hokit below (*comments at the 43:46-minute mark of the video): 

Josh Hokit's response to Alex Pereira's remarks about their potential fight

Alex Pereira's aforementioned comments included a reference to Josh Hokit targeting him at the UFC Freedom 250 promotional press conference as well as the fight-week pre-fight press conference. 

While Pereira indicated he could've physically attacked Hokit onstage at the press conference, but didn't, "The Incredible Hok" has continued his verbal onslaught against "Poatan." 

Currently, Ciryl Gane is expected to fight heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall in a title unification fight -- a rematch -- when Aspinall returns from his injury hiatus. 

Meanwhile, Hokit has consistently called out Pereira for a fight over the past few weeks. On that note, the undefeated heavyweight has now responded to the remarks Pereira made on The Ariel Helwani Show. 

Hokit used a pair of emojis to cap off his reply to an X post featuring footage of Pereira's conversation with Helwani, and he simply wrote, "Uh oh." 

 

Check out Josh Hokit's X post in response to Alex Pereira's comments below: 

Uh oh👀😏 https://t.co/blKnghO2ZW

— The Incredible Hok (@Josh_HokitUFC) June 18, 2026