Tom Aspinall’s comeback finally has real momentum behind it. But Josh Hokit isn’t buying the timing. The UFC heavyweight champion has been out since an eye-poke injury forced a no-contest against Ciryl Gane last October, one that required separate eye operations before he was medically cleared again. Now, with Gane sitting on the interim title and a Paris rematch taking shape, Hokit is openly questioning whether any of this is actually heading toward a real fight.

“The real question is if Eddie is asking for $25 M per fight for the lowest-producing, non-women champion on the roster? If so, then who cares who “says” they are ready to fight?” Hokit wrote on social media. “It’s all propaganda to make the @ufc look bad when the fight doesn’t get made.”

That skepticism is aimed squarely at Eddie Hearn, Aspinall’s manager through Matchroom Talent Agency, who has publicly pushed back on Aspinall’s current UFC contract as undervaluing what the champion brings to a fight with Gane. Hearn has said the team has already told the promotion Aspinall is ready, with only the numbers left to work out, and that all they’re asking for is fair value given the size of the fight on the table.

Hokit’s doubts about that framing didn’t start with this post either. Weeks earlier, after Gane knocked out Alex Pereira at UFC Freedom 250 to reclaim interim gold, Hokit went further than a passing comment.

“This crybaby has lost all of his aura,” Hokit wrote of Pereira, before turning to Aspinall directly. “Here’s an idea, UFC. Cut Tom. Ciryl is the undisputed champ anyways in my opinion. He made Tom quit. Tom’s manager is trying to play games. Give me Ciryl in September, and when I win, I will give Alex Pereira a chance to get his self-esteem back in Nov/Dec. At least then we will have a champ that is down to fight all of the time.”

That kind of rhetoric has become something of a pattern for Hokit over the past few weeks, not a one-off reaction. He’s built himself into one of the division’s most talked-about names doing it too, sitting at 4-0 in the UFC with wins over ranked names Curtis Blaydes and Derrick Lewis in his last two outings alone.

The reality check behind Josh Hokit’s attacks on Tom Aspinall

Some of what Hokit is arguing holds up. The heavyweight title picture has genuinely been stuck in limbo since the Aspinall-Gane no-contest, and an interim belt only papers over part of that problem.

Where his case runs into trouble is what actually happens next. Aspinall remains the most bankable name in the division regardless of activity, and Hearn has pointed out that he’s already pulled in seven figures in outside commercial deals this year alone, a DAZN partnership, a Cloudbet deal, podcast revenue, without setting foot in the Octagon. That’s exactly the kind of leverage that makes cutting him, as Hokit has suggested, look far less realistic than it sounds on paper.

Hokit’s own position in the rankings adds to that gap. He’s currently outside the top five at heavyight, behind established names like Alexander Volkov, Sergei Pavlovich, and Pereira himself, all of whom have stronger claims to a title shot on paper than a fighter four fights into his UFC run.

More than anything, though, the two principals at the center of this don’t sound like men playing games with each other. Gane called Aspinall out immediately after beating Pereira, and Aspinall answered from home, live, without hesitation.

“Paris in September? I’ll do that. Let me know. I don’t mind, I’ll go to Paris,” Aspinall said.

Dana White hasn’t confirmed the pairing yet, but the UFC’s calendar already has a Fight Night event booked for Paris on September 5, the exact date and location both fighters have already agreed to in public. Whether the numbers get settled in time to fill that date with a title unification bout is the only real question left standing.