UFC 334 star Josh Hokit open to Tom Aspinall fight but raises one question

Josh Hokit has welcomed a fight with Tom Aspinall next, as the controversial American prepares to face Ciryl Gane this weekend.

In the main event of UFC 334, Hokit will challenge Gane for the undisputed heavyweight title, which Gane received in September when Aspinall vacated the belt.

Gane won the interim title by stopping Alex Pereira at the White House in June, moments after Hokit TKOed Derrick Lewis, and so the Frenchman was elevated to regular champion when Aspinall gave up the main belt. Aspinall actually vacated his title due to ongoing complications from an eye injury, which was caused by multiple eye pokes from Gane in their fight last October.

Josh Hokit on the scales before the UFC’s White House event (Getty)

The extent of the injury means Aspinall’s in-ring future is unclear, with the Briton simply focusing on recovery at the moment, but Hokit has said he is open to a bout with the former champion next – should Hokit win this weekend.

“When I’m champion, anybody can get a fight,” Hokit told media on Wednesday. “Anybody’s going to be able to get a fight. I’m not going to hold the belt and be sidelined. Anybody can get it.”

Yet he highlighted the uncertainty around Aspinall’s future in MMA, adding: “We’ll see if Aspinall comes back, and we’ll see. I don’t think he wants to come back.

“You signed with Eddie Hearn, Dana [White’s] arch nemesis. To me, that’s like you’re just trying to get to the money, get a money fight in in boxing.”

Hokit, 29, was addressing Aspinall’s partnership with boxing promoter Hearn, who signed the UFC star to a new talent agency earlier this year. Hearn has been feuding with UFC president and CEO White for months, since the latter launched Zuffa Boxing.

“So, we’ll see if they give him a price to work with in the UFC,” Hokit continued, “but I mean… Tom Aspinall wearing glasses, I’m whooping asses, entertaining the masses in the meantime. So yeah, if it makes sense, anybody can get it.”

Hokit during his win over Derrick Lewis on the South Lawn (Getty)

Hokit has proven highly divisive due to his WWE-style character and outlandish remarks, including his baffling claim at the White House that Michelle Obama is “a man”.

Hokit will carry an unbeaten record into his fight with Gane, 36, where a victory over the Frenchman would mean “that Gotham is saved”, the American said.

“[It would mean] the heavyweight division is saved. The future is born, the past will be put in a casket. That’s what I think. I don’t know if the heavyweight division has been cursed for these amount of years, but they haven’t had an active champion in a while, and so I’m here to give them that.

“I feel like everything, every situation in everyone’s life is preparing them for a moment that hasn’t happened yet. This is my moment. I think everything I’ve been through in my life has prepped me for this situation.

Ciryl Gane seemed to land numerous illegal blows to the back of Alex Pereira’s head in June (Getty)

“I’ve been wrestling since I was four, playing football since I was seven, and so just the rollercoaster journey, the ups and downs… People just see how quickly I got to the title, but they haven’t seen the whole process; they just see the four [UFC] fights.”

Hokit’s reference to the instability of the heavyweight division was an allusion to the various interim and so-called undisputed champions of recent years.

In early 2023, Francis Ngannou left the UFC, vacating the heavyweight title in the process. In March of that year, Jon Jones submitted Gane in a vacant-title fight, but the American would not defend the belt until November 2024 due to injury.

In the meantime, Aspinall won the interim strap and even made the rare decision to defend it while waiting for Jones. Aspinall retained the interim title successfully, before Jones returned and retained his own belt against Stipe Miocic.

Tom Aspinall during his reign as interim heavyweight champion (Getty)

Miocic, a former champion, retired immediately after that fight, while Jones strung along Aspinall for months before also retiring in summer 2025. As a result, Aspinall was elevated to undisputed champion.

But Aspinall’s first defence of the main belt ended as a first-round no-contest against Gane, due to the latter’s eye pokes. Then came Gane’s stoppage of Pereira, who alleged that the Frenchman had landed numerous illegal strikes in the fight’s finishing sequence.

Nevertheless, Gane’s win over Pereira saw him become a two-time interim champion, before “Bon Gamin” finally became undisputed when Aspinall gave up the regular strap in September.