Ciryl Gane has learned to shut out the critics, but at UFC 334, Josh Hokit is bringing the noise, the wrestling, and a few extra personalities as he challenges for the heavyweight crown.
Josh Hokit is probably having the most impactful year of any UFC heavyweight in recent memory. Three wins, including one at the White House, so naturally we caught up with him and put him on the cover a few months ago. He’s embraced the heel persona, but one more challenge remains: Ciryl Gane. We couldn’t feature one villain without featuring the other. The only difference is that Hokit seems to have manufactured this role while Gane is reluctant. Both are some of the loudest introverts in MMA. The Incredible Hok might enjoy antagonising opponents and making himself impossible to ignore, but underneath it all is a contradiction.
“I’m like a homebody,” he told me when we spoke while he sat at his kitchen bench. “I'm very introverted. I don't like talking to people, believe it or not.”
The French heavy hitter he’ll face at UFC 334 is remarkably similar and opts for a quiet life, having stopped giving much of himself away. At one point, Gane happily shared his life with fans. Basketball. Video games. Golf, jokes. Whatever occupied his attention between fights. An unusually gifted athlete who didn't discover combat sports until his mid-twenties, he went from selling luxury furniture in Paris to fighting for a UFC title in his tenth professional MMA bout. He made the transition look almost indecently easy. Heavyweights traditionally make their living by knocking people over. Gane preferred making them miss, landing punches and kicks with the precision of someone operating several weight classes below his own. It couldn’t last.
REALITY CHECK
It took 10 professional victories before Gane tasted defeat at Francis Ngannou's hands. This led to criticism and the uncomfortable discovery that the same people celebrating his personality could use it against him when things went wrong. After Jon Jones submitted him in just over two minutes in 2023, some people even saw his enthusiasm for gaming as evidence that he wasn’t taking MMA seriously enough.
“I cut out everything after that. That was a little bit of my therapy after Jones. I went very low-key. 'Leave me alone. Talk about the other fighters, please. Forget me forever,'” Gane told ESPN.
Fortunately, the world didn't oblige. Gane kept fighting, eventually claimed the heavyweight championship, and now faces a challenger who believes he's the greatest athlete ever to enter the Octagon. Hokit has studied Gane's movement, basketball skills and even his golf swing, concluding that he could probably beat the Frenchman at most sports. That's quite a claim to make about a man whose footwork has spent years making other heavyweights look like they're fighting in borrowed boots. And while Hokit is busy introducing the world to his various personalities, Gane seems perfectly content being himself. His coach, Fernand Lopez, insists the champion couldn't care less about the challenger's verbal theatrics. Which presents Hokit with an unusual problem. He's spent years developing characters designed to get under people's skin, only to discover his next opponent might not even be paying attention. For Gane, that indifference has been hard-earned. At UFC 334, it could be every bit as important as the footwork, timing, and heavyweight power that brought him the belt.
THE MAN BEHIND BON GAMIN
For someone who makes millions by being watched by millions, Gane has developed a particular appreciation for going unnoticed. He's found that freedom in Morocco, where he told Nina Drama he enjoys walking the streets without being recognised. MMA isn't particularly popular there, which means fewer people know who he is. Whether he's visiting or spending extended periods there, the appeal is obvious. For a 6ft 4in heavyweight champion, disappearing into a crowd is a luxury. After years of public scrutiny, he's learned to appreciate it. Away from the usual fight-week interrogation, the old Gane quickly reappears. He jokes about his shoe size, talks about his fondness for Afrobeats and French rap, and admits Americans have a peculiar habit of shouting at each other in restaurants. His coach apparently lasted five minutes in one noisy establishment before abandoning the mission. A man who willingly exchanges punches with professional heavyweights apparently draws the line at someone loudly discussing their cheeseburger. Gane hasn't become miserable or bitter. He's still the same playful character who once seemed delighted to share everything with the public. The difference is that he now controls how much of himself the public gets to see. His brother David explained the change to ESPN.
“Ciryl is a good, happy person, so his mentality was to share that early on. But social media is not a happy place. Social media is mostly negative. I don't think it was him being naive. I just think he's now learned how to protect himself a little better. His home bubble is more protected than it was before.”
WINNING ISN'T ENOUGH
That protective bubble has been particularly useful lately. His nickname, Bon Gamin, loosely translates to ‘good kid,’ and his last two appearances have drawn the kind of controversy that would test a Buddhist monk's patience. His Tom Aspinall bout became an argument about eye poke responsibility. Pereira claimed Gane’s finishing strikes were illegal, although Herb Dean subsequently defended his interpretation of the rules. Gane had spent years being criticised for losing the biggest fights. Now he'd won one, and success comes with a complimentary complaints department. Yet Gane's response to public scrutiny has changed. Ahead of the Pereira fight, he told Daniel Cormier that being regarded as the outsider suited him perfectly.
“Yeah, I'm really comfortable with this situation. To be an outsider, I'm really okay with that. I'm really okay with that.”
That doesn't mean he has nothing to prove. Gane cares deeply about winning, but he's stopped asking strangers to validate his ambitions.
“My mission is for me now. I'm not fighting to be appreciated by people and I'm not fighting for the money. It's just about me. Finish my mission,” he told ESPN.
And perhaps that's the real evolution of Bon Gamin. The good kid is still there. He's just learned that being a good guy doesn't guarantee everyone will like you. Particularly when you've recently poked one champion in the eyes and knocked out another amid accusations of illegal strikes.
BUILT DIFFERENT
For all the discussion about Gane's personality, it's easy to forget how peculiar his fighting career has been. Most elite heavyweights arrive with years of wrestling, boxing or martial arts behind them. Gane discovered Muay Thai at 24, after focusing on basketball and football. He went unbeaten in professional Muay Thai, switched to MMA in 2018 and signed with the UFC after just three professional fights. Most fighters spend longer arguing with their first manager. His striking statistics are equally interesting. He lands 5.40 significant strikes per minute while absorbing just 2.31. That's a positive differential of 3.09, an impressive margin in a division where one misplaced punch can rearrange your evening. His reported 61% striking accuracy is equally remarkable, but perhaps the most revealing figure is where those strikes land. Around 45% target the head, 29% the legs and 27% the body. While some heavyweights spend entire fights looking for a chin, Gane seems determined to work through the whole anatomy textbook. Tom Aspinall recognised the problem long before they eventually met. Speaking to Fighters Only ahead of their October 2025 encounter, he offered an unusually generous assessment.
“I think he’s really unique for a heavyweight. He moves really well. He’s got great footwork. He kicks really well. He’s not like a normal heavyweight, so he brings a whole new set of challenges that I have not faced before.”
His arsenal includes more than elegant kickboxing, too. In just his second UFC appearance, he submitted Don'Tale Mayes with a heel hook, a particularly unpleasant way for a heavyweight to discover that the Frenchman's grappling extends beyond staying on his feet. Against Hokit, however, Gane's distance control could face a different kind of test. His challenger isn't particularly interested in admiring footwork. He wants to close the gap, make things uncomfortable and keep coming until somebody runs out of answers.
THE SPACE BETWEEN THEM
The problem with being so good at keeping people away is that eventually someone comes along who makes a living getting close. Hokit is that someone. A former collegiate wrestler with professional football experience, he's built his MMA game around pressure, takedowns, and a willingness to keep working. His cardio is a weapon, and he knows it.
“And so even if I just had speed, if I just had wrestling, if I just had athleticism, I'm nothing without the cardio. And so cardio has to be the number one,” Hokit told me months ago.
Gane's coach, Fernand Lopez, recognises the danger. Discussing the matchup, he compared Hokit's relentless approach to former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez, whose combination of wrestling, punches, and conditioning made him a thoroughly unpleasant man to share an Octagon with. Lopez sees the fight as a battle over distance. Hokit, however, seems convinced he can compete with Gane wherever the fight goes.
“I saw him play basketball,” Hokit said on the Ariel Helwani Show. “I see how the way he moves. I see even his golf swing. It's just like he's a master of movement, but I still believe I'll go down as the greatest athlete to ever step into the octagon.”
That's an ambitious assessment from a man preparing to fight someone who has spent most of his UFC career making world-class heavyweights miss. But Hokit doesn't necessarily need to be the better all-round athlete. He needs to make Gane fight his kind of fight. The champ’s challenge is keeping enough distance to ensure that never happens.
ONE LAST THING TO PROVE
There is, of course, one rather large problem with not caring what people think. You still have to win fights. And at UFC 334, Gane faces a challenger whose rise has been almost as ridiculous as his own. Hokit has bulldozed his way into a heavyweight title shot after three victories in 2026, including one at the White House. Were there more deserving challengers? Quite possibly. Alexander Volkov and Sergei Pavlovich might have something to say about that, although Gane has already beaten Volkov twice. But deserving a title shot and making people desperate to watch one aren't necessarily the same thing. Hokit has delivered victories, controversy and enough personality to fill an entire fight card. He's made himself the fight people want to see. Besides, Gane knows all about taking the express route. He signed with the UFC after just three pro MMA fights and challenged for his first UFC title in his tenth. Neither man has spent much time politely waiting for his number to be called. For Hokit, the occasion will bring a different kind of challenge. Beneath the characters and bravado, he's remarkably candid about the psychological demands of competition.
“We all feel the weight, so to speak,” he told me. “We all feel the anxiety. We all feel the fear.”
Gane understands that pressure, too. Before fighting Alex Pereira, he offered Daniel Cormier an observation that now seems particularly relevant.
“I think the pressure came when you have the belt. Not when you fighting for the belt.”
Well, now he has it. The heavyweight championship he's pursued for years is finally his, and the man trying to take it away has enough wrestling, cardio and alternative personalities to make the first defence thoroughly uncomfortable. But Gane has already experienced most of what heavyweight MMA can throw at a man. He's been celebrated, ridiculed, submitted, accused of cheating and crowned champion. He's discovered that winning doesn't necessarily silence critics, and that being a decent person despite all of this is no guarantee of being treated like one.
What he hasn't lost is the desire to compete. He's simply stopped confusing public approval with personal achievement. The belt matters. His performance matters. The opinions of people who've never met him matter considerably less.
And if Hokit wants to spend fight week getting inside his head, he might find there's nobody answering the door. The good kid has finally learned to lock it.
