Following Tom Aspinall’s decision to vacate the heavyweight belt and Ciryl Gane’s promotion to undisputed champion, UFC matchmakers turned heads by booking rising contender Josh Hokit for the UFC 334 main event at Madison Square Garden. Skipping the line ahead of proven contenders like Alexander Volkov and Sergei Pavlovich, Hokit became the target of Volkov’s razor-sharp wit. Appearing on The Ariel Helwani Show, the Russian giant sarcastically applauded the promotion’s “charity work”: “It’s an incredibly inspiring story of a guy with mental illness fighting for the belt. It’s very noble of the UFC, because there’s no way he could beat anyone in the Top 5 right now.” Despite coming off dominant wins over Jailton Almeida and Waldo Cortes-Acosta, Volkov finds himself once again forced to take the long way back to the top.
