Sean Strickland turned his attention to Josh Hokit during a media scrum on Tuesday, mocking the UFC fighter’s persona and saying the act has gone too far. Strickland said Hokit is almost 30 and is behaving like Jake Paul did when he was 13, adding that he should stop doing weird interviews with homeless people and just fight.
The comments landed at a sharp moment for both men. Strickland is set to face Khamzat Chimaev in the UFC 328 main event on Saturday, while Hokit, who is undefeated in the UFC, is due to fight Derrick Lewis at the UFC White House card in June. The timing gives the exchange extra bite, because both are moving into high-profile bouts while talking past each other in public.
Strickland was not only critical, he also made clear he knows Hokit personally. He said he has met him, trained with him and considers him a friend, calling Hokit a likable guy whose image has become so manufactured that it feels like a WWE skit. That is the friction inside the story: the critique is coming from someone inside the same orbit, not from a rival looking in from the outside.
Hokit answered on Twitter with a challenge, writing, “Let’s fight… I’ll show you the difference between me and Jake Paul.” He followed that with another post taking aim at Strickland’s own public image, writing, “Sean Strickland, complaining about a persona is like a circus clown complaining about too many balloons. You’re just mad because my WWE skit has better ratings than your personality.”
The exchange fits a pattern around Hokit, who has built a persona around rehearsed lines and theatrical promotion. He has leaned into attention in media appearances before, once rhyming every line in a John Cena-style Thuganomics bit and threatening to throw down with Jiri Prochazka just days before both were scheduled to compete on the same card. The UFC also matched him against former title challenger Curtis Blaydes in only his third fight for the promotion, and UFC CEO Dana White has said he does not enjoy Hokit’s promotional style whatsoever.
What happens next is straightforward: Strickland fights Chimaev on Saturday, Hokit fights Lewis in June, and the noise around Hokit’s act is not fading. If anything, Strickland’s criticism and Hokit’s comeback show that the persona is still working on the one stage that matters most in this sport — the one where people are talking about you before the cage door closes.
