Who Was Josh Hokit Before 'The Incredible Hok'?

Going by first impressions, it would be easy to dismiss Josh Hokit as just another ‘jock with an attitude’, with an unfiltered, loud mouth. Since this is the business of fighting, it’s quite unsurprising to see Hokit’s brash, populist, no-holds-barred approach to presenting himself on the world’s biggest platform for mixed martial arts.

Hokit’s no stranger to controversies at this point. His comments about Michelle Obama being “a man”, his jabs at non-opponents like Alex Pereira, Ilia Topuria and even Jiri Prochazka, are a few instances of this man’s ‘problematic personality’. But beneath all that bravado and noise, who is the man behind ‘The Incredible Hok’ persona?

Josh Hokit Excelled in Wrestling and Football before MMA

Josh Hokit might be one of those ‘one-in-a-lifetime’ athletes, given that he made the jump to professional MMA without an amateur fighting background. Three years after his professional debut in Bellator, Hokit finds himself fighting for the UFC title against Ciryl Gane at UFC 334.

So how did he do it? How did he embark on a rise that rivals even that of Alex Pereira’s? For starters, he was a decorated wrestler and football player in high school and college, which means that he was an athlete from the get-go, winning his first national wrestling championship at age 6.

In high school, he competed in wrestling and football at Clovis, known for its incredible wrestling program. In his senior year, he peaked at #3 in his division. He even received a wrestling scholarship to Drexel University, which he rejected in favor of Fresno State University, since Drexel didn’t have a football team.

Though he wasn’t selected in the 2020 NFL Draft, he was signed by the San Francisco 49ers as an undrafted free agent. However, after just seven months with the team, Hokit was waived from the team on Aug. 15, 2021. In 2022, he briefly signed with the Arizona Cardinals, only to be waived five days later

Rise of 'The Incredible Hok'

A year later, Hokit joined Bellator and earned the nickname ‘The Incredible Hok’ from the then-owner Scott Coker. “He was the one who gave me the fight name, the Incredible Hok, so shout out to him," Hokit said after his professional debut, where he submitted Spencer Smith with an arm triangle choke in the third round.

Another Bellator fight, and three LFA fights later, Hokit appeared on Dana White’s Contender Series, where he went full throttle after his first-round TKO victory over Guilherme Uriel. That performance earned him a UFC contract. A year and three months later, Josh Hokit finds himself fighting for the title at UFC 334.