Alex Pereira isn’t bothered about Josh Hokit and his antics. After the incident during the UFC Freedom 250 press conference earlier this month, ‘Poatan’ has finally broken his silence on the matter. He reflected on Hokit’s remarks and shared his thoughts on Ilia Topuria intervening to defend him during the altercation while appearing in an interview with MMA Junkie.
“I don’t understand English, and I think Topuria took offense to that, and Topuria saw that, and he stepped up as a brother,” Alex Pereira said, per translation from his coach and interpreter Plinio Cruz. “Ilia threw the bottle or bottle cap at Hokit’s face when he saw that he was going too far. To me, Hokit is a clueless guy.
“He’s the kind of guy who doesn’t get along with his family. He’s a problematic guy; he’s a guy that nobody likes. I’m sure he’s a troubled guy.”
Alex Pereira says he won’t react if Josh Hokit comes at him on #UFCWhiteHouse fight week 🗿 "If on fight week this guy is able to get to me to try and do anything, it's just messed up by the organization." (via @MikeBohn)
Pereira’s claims ring true, especially after Josh Hokit has shown that building notoriety by picking a fight with Alex Pereira is more important to him than professionalism itself. During the press conference, Hokit insulted Pereira’s mother and openly disrespected a longtime veteran of the sport.
Realizing Pereira could barely follow the exchange amid the chaos and language barrier, Ilia Topuria stepped in. Pereira believes Hokit’s behavior will continue throughout fight week. And while he insists he is not concerned, he did warn the UFC about what he sees as a potential lapse in security.
“[On fight] week, [there’s] probably going to have a lot of people around not letting [anything] happen,” Pereira added. “And [I am] just going to stay [the same] and compose like always. And on [fight] week, [if] this guy is able to get to [me] to try to do anything, [it would mean] just messed up by the organization.”
The next presser for the event is set for Friday, June 12, 2026, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C. The event itself will go down on June 14 at the White House South Lawn. In the meantime, though, Pereira, who is fighting Ciryl Gane, has revealed that he and Topuria, who is defending his lightweight title against Justin Gaethje, have been training at the same place.
“It’s really good to have Topuria around this week,” Pereira said. “He gave us a ride on the jet that he got in Dubai. We [are] also training in my gym in New York, but not training together. Topuria is going to do his own thing. I am going to do my own thing. [We are] just sharing the same room. We are starting to have a really good friendship with the team.”
That, of course, brings us to Topuria’s side of the story about what happened at the presser.
Josh Hokit responds to Ilia Topuria after White House presser incident
Since the incident, Topuria strongly condemned Hokit for bringing Pereira’s mother into the trash talk. And he added that the heavyweight crossed a line with his comments.
“You can talk about the other person’s professionalism, you can mess with the other person, it doesn’t matter,” Topuria said. “We’re used to it, we know what we’re doing. But talking about the other person’s mother in that way, it’s like my blood boils… And he was lucky to have so many security guards. One of them was going to get hurt, and it wasn’t going to be me.”
Hokit, however, seeing no wrongdoing in his actions during the presser, refused to take accountability. He later responded on X, mocking Topuria for taking offense to the comments.
“You’d never survive at a middle school lunch table in America then 😂 You sheltered little boy.”
Josh Hokit was added to the Freedom 250 card by Dana White after commentator Joe Rogan suggested the same after Hokit’s win over Curtis Blaydes at UFC 327. He was matched against Derrick Lewis, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump.
Clearly, the fight week is going to be explosive. But whether Alex Pereira’s concerns about Josh Hokit pushing things far enough to cause a security breakdown at the next press conference actually come true remains to be seen.
