Josh Hokit pokes fun at Alex Pereira over Herb Dean with recent social media post
Josh Hokit has continued to needle at Alex Pereira, this time deepening their one-sided feud by mocking 'Poatan's' criticism of MMA referee Herb Dean.
Josh Hokit is not letting his feud with Alex Pereira go, having recently made a mockery of the legendary Brazilian's issues with Herb Dean's officiating. Curiously, the feud between Hokit and Pereira remains relatively one-sided, as Pereira has rarely addressed him, and has shown little interest in facing him inside the octagon. Yet, Hokit refuses to take his foot off the proverbial gas as he continues to pursue a bout with 'Poatan' en route to an eventual heavyweight title shot.
Josh Hokit comes to Herb Dean's defense
Several fighters have spoken up against Herb Dean's officiating as of late. He has been accussed of not enforcing the rules inside the octagon by allowing fouls to occur in three back-to-back fights. He did nothing to penalize Manel Kape for eye poking Kyoji Horiguchi at UFC Vegas 119, nor did he penalize Sharabutdin Magomedov for both pulling Michel Pereira's hair and eye poking him at UFC Fight Night 280. However, Dean drew the most criticism for allowing Ciryl Gane to land back-of-the-head shots on Alex Pereira at UFC Freedom 250 in the pair's interim heavyweight title fight.
This sparked Pereira's ire, who began a crusade against Dean following his second-round TKO loss to Gane. One fighter who has opted to praise Dean, though, is Josh Hokit, who took to X to subtly mock Pereira, with whom he has been feuding. He did so by answering a, 'What do you think about Herb Dean,' question with the following:
"The best referee in the game."
The best referee in the game š https://t.co/9G3nUZPbkS
ā The Incredible Hok (@Josh_HokitUFC) June 28, 2026
It marks one of Hokit's latest jabs at Pereira as he continues to escalate their feud. However, another fighter also spoke up in Dean's defense, though not through the veil of a trash-talking gimmick. Former UFC flyweight and current Brave FC flyweight champion Muhammad Mokaev also took to X to address the uproar following Dean's officiating blunder at UFC Fight Night 280. He opined that the MMA world was overreacting, while labeling Dean a top-tier referee.
Mokaev is 17-0 (1) and last fought in the UFC at UFC 304, where he defeated the aforementioned Kape via unanimous decision in a lackluster bout preceded by a heated buildup. Unfortunately for Mokaev, the UFC opted against renewing his contract, with Dana White citing various, unspecified behind-the-scenes issues involving him as major playing factors.
