Josh Hokit walked up to a Wednesday news conference in Washington and tried a dry-run Kill Tony set, then told the room exactly how it was going: “This is why I don't do standup comedy, dude,” he said. A beat later, the UFC heavyweight from Fresno State added, “I'm bombing right now, dog.”
That awkward run-through landed a week fight fans are already circling because Hokit is scheduled to face Derrick Lewis on Sunday at the White House at UFC Freedom 250. The bout was a late addition and came at the specific request of President Trump, making the heavyweight pairing one of the most unusual on a card built as much around the setting as the matchup.
Hokit, 9-0 in MMA and 3-0 in the UFC, did not stop at self-deprecation. In the same stretch of the appearance, he sketched out what he planned to do to Lewis in the cage by saying, “Derrick Lewis, I'm going to have him kidnapped by a group of mimes. The things they will do to him will be unspeakable.” It was part fight-week trash talk, part comedy bit, and part performance for a crowd that seemed to be watching to see how far he would take it.
That has become part of Hokit's pitch. He said there are three altered egos so far — “Down Vato,” “The Incredible Hok” and “Scared Josh” — even after his manager advised him to be more like himself ahead of the White House event. Hokit said of “Down Vato,” “Believe it or not, it is me,” adding that he grew up around “a lot of cholo-type of guys,” used to play with that voice and remembers his running back room at Fresno State being called “Vatos Locos.” “We would run up on the tight ends or the linebackers or anybody that wanted it, fool,” he said.
The friction is obvious: the more Hokit talks about being himself, the more he slips into characters, voices and outlandish threats. That is what made the Wednesday set feel less like a polished routine than a test run for whatever version of him shows up on Sunday. Whether he keeps the act going at the White House or reins it in, the fight now carries the same question his comedy did: how much of Josh Hokit is the real one, and how much is the bit?
