Josh Hokit’s altercation with Alex Pereira was the highlight of the UFC Freedom 250 presser. Out of the blue, Hokit, instead of insulting his own opponent, Derrick Lewis, went after Poatan. He threw insults at the Brazilian, and the heavyweight interim title challenger took it calmly on the chin. But things changed when Hokit asked Pereira to speak in English. That line got a reaction from the lightweight champion Ilia Topuria, who immediately went after Hokit and even threw a bottle at the rising heavyweight star. This prompted Pereira to push back on Hokit, and the event descended into chaos with security intervening to separate the fighters.

Addressing that heated moment, Josh Hokit has now accused the former light heavyweight champion of understanding English all too well and maintaining a fake “stoic” persona to avoid a fight.

“I should have smacked him upside,” Hokit said in a Full Send interview. “I mean, that’s just the character he’s playing. We’re all playing characters at the end of the day. He wants to be the stoic ‘Chama,’ act like he doesn’t know English. And then you have this guy where I’m flipping him off to his face, to supposedly the baddest man on the planet. And I said, ‘I’m gonna Chama on your mama.’  Now, I don’t know what ‘Chama’ means. People were saying, ‘Did you hear what he said he’s going to do to his mom?’ I don’t know. What does ‘Chama’ mean? But if that gets him to fight me, then sure, I’ll talk about his mom. I don’t know.

“Yeah, because then you see, it was kind of perfect timing too. You see all his friends and interview buddies come out, and they’re like, ‘Oh, he knows. He actually knows English.’ So that’s even worse. He’s even more of a coward. I flipped him off to his face. I’m like one yard away from him, and then I said, ‘I’m gonna Chama on your mama.’ And it’s like, ‘I don’t know English.’ I mean, how easy is that, you know, to pull that card? So, it is what it is. I think a match-up is inevitable.”

When it comes to Pereira putting on an act, he definitely maintains a stoic persona. But the Brazilian has repeatedly made it clear that he doesn’t fully understand English, at least not at the level of a fluent speaker like Hokit, for whom it is a first language. Pereira communicates exclusively in Portuguese, his native language. In a 2024 interview, ‘Poatan’ said he finds speaking English really “difficult.” He also admitted during an interview with Ariel Helwani that Sean Strickland taught him much of the little English that he knows. Even in his skits with Nina Drama, there is often a translator present or one of his teammates steps in to help out.

Talking about the confrontation with Hokit, the former two-division champion revealed in an MMA Junkie interview a few weeks ago that he actually didn’t understand what Hokit said to him during the confrontation and praised Ilia Topuria for standing up for him. That said, Pereira probably understood Hokit’s tirade later, and that would build a hype-filled backstory if they ever collide inside the Octagon.

With both fighters being in the same division now, the chances are definitely solid.  Now, as the rivalry between Pereira and Hokit builds up, Ilia Topuria also shared his part of the story.

Ilia Topuria couldn’t “believe” what Josh Hokit told Alex Pereira at UFC Freedom 250 presser   

For the most part, Ilia Topuria would consider himself one of the best trash-talkers on the current UFC roster. But Hokit bringing up Alex Pereira’s mother to throw shade crossed the line even for the lightweight champ. Growing up in a Georgian household, Topuria found Hokit’s insult toward Pereira’s mother absolutely disrespectful and stated that it shouldn’t be an example for the people who watched it live.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Topuria told ABC. “I’ve been in many press conferences, I have seen everything. But I have never seen someone stand up and talk about someone’s mother in such a disrespectful way. It was pretty disrespectful… And for no reason, you’re not even going to fight him.

“You can talk about the other’s professionalism, you can go after each other, it’s fine, we’re used to it, we know what we’re in for. But talking about someone’s mother in that way just made my blood boil. We can’t set that example here. Millions of people are watching us.”  

After Topuria pushed back on Josh Hokit, he got much support from the MMA world. Even his former rival, Max Holloway, praised him for confronting the “out of control” Hokit.

With resentment coming the 28-year-old UFC star’s way, it’s expected that he was able to cut a promo for his fight against Alex Pereira. If he can get past Derrick Lewis, and Pereira beats Gane for the interim belt at UFC Freedom 250, we might already have a future matchup loaded with hype.