UFC 334's 6 big questions: What in the world would a Josh Hokit title reign look like?

It’s the UFC’s annual fall visit to the “Big Apple,” and once again it’s a big card heading to Madison Square Garden. What has MSG been synonymous with since the golden era of boxing in the 1970s? That’s right, heavyweight fights. Perhaps it’s not the “Fight of the Century,” but Ciryl Gane will defend the (somewhat disputed) heavyweight title against Josh Hokit in the main event of UFC 334, while Kayla Harrison defends the women’s bantamweight belt against Amanda Nunes in the co-headliner. Two titles fights, plus some significant crossroads fights in the buildup. Saturday night will also be the swan song for Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, who is calling it a career after his battle with Charles Radtke, while New Jersey’s own Jim Miller is ready to continue his timeless march into the record books. It’ll be the 48th walk for Miller in the UFC, which is a record that may never be broken.A big fight card means burning questions, and it’s time to ask the six biggest as we roll to the hole on Saturday night!1. Does UFC 334’s main event feel like it carries the magnitude of a true heavyweight title fight? Petesy: In terms of modern-day UFC, this is one of the biggest heavyweight fights you can make with Tom Aspinall on the sidelines. It’s not the ill-fated Francis Ngannou vs. Jon Jones bout, or the aforementioned Aspinall finally being awarded a Jones marquee, but Josh Hokit — the breakout name of the organization in 2026 — adds a layer of intrigue that no other fighter in the division can at the moment. Personally, I had no real interest in seeing Gane and Alex Pereira run it back. This fresh matchup could usher in a new generation of heavyweight title matchups should the UFC’s enfant terrible get one over on Gane. I understand the martyrs of meritocracy crying for Alexander Volkov to get the shot. I would usually be among them. However, UFC’s matching model has ventured away from appeasing those who deserve the next crack at the belt in favor of who can make the most noise in doing so. With that in mind, Hokit and his brand of controversy should have us all champing at the bit for the main event in the aftermath of Thursday’s press conference.Ciryl Gane and Josh Hokit collide for the UFC heavyweight title in the main event of UFC 334.Michelle Farsi via Getty ImagesChuck: Petesy, a wiseman once belted through his magnificent grill, “Want the knockout check and the benefits/Teddy Graham looking boy, you my nemesis.” That was Josh Hokit on his diss track toward ol’ Ciryl Gane, which is bonus material you’d never get with a “Poatan” or a Volkov.I don’t know if this one feels like a super mega heavyweight fight, but I admit, I see it through a spotty lens. With the UFC’s heavyweight division careening so far away from the lineal champion — with Francis Ngannou never getting overthrown, then Jon Jones never getting overthrown, then Aspinall never getting overthrown — it feels like we’re a thousand miles down some side quest, and that we may never get back. I do think Hokit will have us feeling some kind of way by the time he makes his walk, which means I may change my tune by Saturday night. But right now, as I type this on Tuesday, this feels a little like a heavyweight clearance rack. 2. Imagine a world with Josh Hokit as the heavyweight champion. What does that look like? Chuck: See, this is one of those things I wrestle with, Petesy. Josh Hokit, already altogether too pro-wrestling for an enduring schtick in a literal realm of fisticuffs, showing up with his UFC strap, wearing his Oakley glasses and bandanas and gloves, generally lifting his middle finger at everyone just as breezily as a dog might his hind leg at a hydrant. Just when you try to get around all that and try to like him, he yells out that Michelle Obama is a man (or some such other hideous thing).With Sean Strickland already running an anti-PC crusade by offending just about everyone with a pulse, the age of the shock-jock champion will be upon us if Hokit wins a title. His saving grace is that he can fight, and if he beats Gane in a big way, it’ll be that fact which tethers us to his merits. But dude, I was in Washington D.C. when he sat in front of the Lincoln Memorial acting like a fellow with a social disorder. Dana White looked like he’d eaten a bad taco with every word Hokit spoke. The Hokit era might feel like a sentence, should we enter it come Saturday.Petesy: The age of the shock-jock champion, I love it. If he was in this position a couple of decades ago, you could see Hokit saddling up beside Howard Stern or Opie and Anthony and delivering the most pearl-clutching soliloquies combat sports had ever seen. As you mentioned, Dana White has gone out of his way to claim that he detested the Michelle Obama line at the White House. Yet, awarding Hokit a shot at the undisputed title after a win over Derrick Lewis — who had been pounded out by last weekend’s defeated headliner Waldo Cortes-Acosta before that — tells me White isn’t all that upset about it. Hokit can win this fight, but I wouldn’t bet on it. As much as Gane has been labeled dirty by a number of his previous foes, he is an incredibly well-rounded heavyweight who moves like no one Hokit has traded leather with before. I’m not completely ruling out a Hokit championship era. One thing is for sure: If it does happen, it certainly won’t be boring. Will Tom Aspinall fight again in 2027?Chris Unger via Getty Images3. What’s a bigger fight for Tom Aspinall, should he be available for next: Gane rematch or a fight with Hokit?Petesy: It feels inevitable that Hokit will enter a new stratosphere of infamy if he beats Gane on Saturday night. While the Gane rematch will always be there should Aspinall be cleared to fight, the Hokit era will feel like Joker running Gotham City. Aspinall, in turn, would become the Caped Crusader, returning to steer the heavyweight ship back on course.Tell me if I’m wrong, but to me, it doesn’t feel like a victorious Gane can attain anything close to what Hokit can. Don’t get me wrong, I’m frothing at the mouth to see a fully fit Aspinall attempt to avenge the loss of his eyesight. But Hokit is different gravy. He’s forcing everyone in the sport to react to him, and you can’t buy that kind of heat in the hurt business. Chuck: Nah, I’m with you. I think for Aspinall it would be nice to get Gane centered in his crosshairs again, just to silence his critics and to see how a full fight plays out. But in terms of what makes for the biggest matchup, Hokit running around with a belt four times removed from other people’s waists is going to feel like an injustice. I agree, too, that a Hokit win makes Aspinall a kind of automatic babyface, at least to those who cultivate good taste in their champions. Think about it. Aspinall vs. Hokit would feel like one of those big heavyweight title fights we never got with the previous beltholders. Not to hate on Gane, but he seems to always be standing in the way of marquee pairings.Kayla Harrison and Amanda Nunes are two of the best bantamweights the sport has ever seen.Michelle Farsi via Getty Images4. Point blank: Is Kayla Harrison’s bantamweight title defense against consensus GOAT Amanda Nunes the biggest fight in women’s MMA history? Chuck: Is it the biggest fight in terms of human interest? No, I’d put the Ronda Rousey fight against Liz Carmouche (or even against Alexis Davis or Cat Zingano) higher in terms of that sort of bigness. Is it in terms of consequence? I’d put Rousey-Holly Holm into that category, because Ronda’s losing was a seismic shift that jolted not only our little bubble, but pop culture itself.But in terms of the best versus the best, résumé going head-to-head against résumé, legacy versus legacy? I would say yes, absolutely. Amanda Nunes, though particularly unsung for what she’s done in this sport, has taken out everyone there is. She beat Rousey with the greatest of ease, as well as Holm. She beat Valentina Shevchenko twice, and brushed the dust off her hands like it was nothing. She went to featherweight and knocked out Cris Cyborg, which remains one of the single greatest feats in women’s MMA history.And if she beats the two-time Olympic gold medalist and rampaging MMA champion Harrison to reclaim the belt? She isn’t likely to relinquish the throne as the GOAT of women’s MMA in our lifetime. Petesy: I couldn’t have put it better myself. Harrison has so much to gain here. As you mentioned, Nunes has taken every scalp imaginable in the UFC. The Cyborg knockout was absolutely massive and it’s hard to call anything the “biggest” in the women’s sport without a nod to Ronda Rousey.There is genuine appetite for Nunes to come back and add context to how good Harrison is. Sure, she’s been on the shelf for a while, but Harrison is returning to action after a horrific injury to fight the consensus greatest female fighter of all time. Our own Ariel Helwani has floated the idea of this being a double retirement fight, which would leave the division in absolute peril. However, I think it would also add to the legacy of the fight, regardless of the outcome, for many years to come. You can argue that several fights were bigger for various different reasons, but I think when all is said and done, Nunes vs. Harrison will always be in the conversation after Saturday night. 5. What’s the best fight on UFC 334 other than the two title fights? Petesy: You might only get to say this a few times a year nowadays, but I think this is a really fun UFC card. As you mentioned up top, there are several layers of intrigue, from “Wonderboy’s” final farewell to Jim Miller’s umpteenth Octagon outing. For me, the certified banger I’ve circled is Drew Dober vs. Chris Duncan. Dober is 90% chin and has rarely been in a bad fight. Duncan is a sheep herder from the Scottish Highlands who weighed in for his first amateur fight on the same day his mother died. This cannot be a bad fight. There will be blood. There will be a knockout. And I have no idea who will win it.Chuck: I like it and think you’re right on that one, it’ll be a banger. But I’ll go with the swing bout on the main card, Caio Borralho against Yoursi Belgaroui. Not all that long ago Borralho was projected to be the first Fighting Nerd to hold a title, and this feels like a do-or-die moment for him to make that happen. Obviously fighting down from his ranking is a thankless task, especially when the UFC is high on a guy like Belgaroui, who trains right down the road for me at Glover Teixeira’s place. I am guessing we see the best of Borralho, given those stakes, and that we’ll see the best of Belgaroui too, since it’s his first marquee matchup. Also, don’t be surprised if Kevin Holland and Uros Medic deliver a Fight of the Night, given that the former loves battling incautious strikers and the latter feasts on dudes who’ll stand and bang with him.6. As this is Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson’s last hurrah, what is your favorite fight of his? Chuck: I remember talking to “Wonderboy” many years ago, in Simpsonville, South Carolina, where he has his gym with his dad. He was so gosh-golly and down to earth, pointing out where he and his buddies hang out and what they like to do for brunch … it was wholesome, Petesy. As in Rated G.I wondered if white sugar ever even touched his lips. Then he went out and starched poor Johny Hendricks at a Fight Night in Vegas, in what I still consider one of great virtuoso performances on record. It wasn’t a gentleman doing the shooting. It was a soulless sniper. It was a blading spring of bionic reflexes. It was execution so clean that it looked choreographed, and Thompson’s prowess that night was mesmerizing. (I watched it half a dozen times.)By the time Hendricks fell, it was as if he hit the canvas in pieces, shards of his former full-bodied self, the beard surgically carved straight off his face. I think that was the high point of Thompson’s career, as he was building steam toward a title shot. I’ll never forget that fight. Stephen Thompson is calling it career after 22 fights and more than a decade inside the Octagon.Mike Roach via Getty ImagesPetesy: What a beautiful tribute to the one true NMF in the game. I have a profound pang of guilt every time I hear Thompson’s name. I was supposed to be ghostwriting Conor McGregor’s autobiography at the time McGregor first got his hands on UFC gold back in 2015. On July 11, he stopped Chad Mendes in the second round of their headline bout at UFC 189. Afterward, I was invited to a dinner with McGregor, his team, his family and the person who serenaded him to the cage that night, the late and eternally great Sinéad O’Connor. One thing led to another that night, and well, let’s just say young Petesy didn’t get his head down until about 1 p.m. the next day. I woke up feeling like I was forgetting something. I turned on the TV in my hotel room at MGM Grand and there was Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson effortlessly spinning in the air and kicking Jake Ellenberger into oblivion. I’ve never forgiven myself for not picking up my credential that day. Luckily, I got to see him fight a number of times in person over the years. I was never going to better your poetic Hendricks entry, so I hope this tale of regret will do the job for me instead.