The historic UFC Freedom 250 card on the White House South Lawn featured some fantastic fights and massive upsets, but the chaotic aftermath is what people can’t seem to stop talking about. Beating the main event, the most viral moment of the night came from rising heavyweight prospect Josh Hokit, who, after knocking out veteran Derrick Lewis in the second round, grabbed Joe Rogan‘s microphone and shouted a baseless conspiracy theory about Michelle Obama.
After calling the former First Lady “a man” infront of the White House, the mainstream media went into a complete spiral and outrage erupted from all sides. Since then almost everyone has been waiting for Joe Rogan to address the matter openly. Well, the UFC color commentator has finally broken his silence on the latest episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, speaking with comedian Tim Dillon about how it was actually the venue that made all the difference.
“That guy Josh Hokit. You know, that’s like, he’s got a, a shtick,” Rogan told Dillon. “Like, he’s got a character: ‘The Incredible Hok.’ And so he’s basically like a pro-wrestling bad guy who also is a really good fighter. So there’s a real problem there.
“Well, they probably, in retrospect, if they wanted to avoid this, probably shouldn’t have had him fight on the White House lawn. Because if he said that at the T-Mobile Arena or in Madison Square Garden, outrageous, but not that big a deal.”
Looking at it objectively the argument makes sense because Hokit had made the same outrageous comment before signing with the UFC back May 2025 after his win over Eric Lunsford at LFA 208. While he was critized for furthering the MAGA conspiracy theory at the time, the backlash was not as severe. However, the fact that it was on the South Lawn of the White House, in the presence of Donald Trump, on UFC’s biggest night, made the terrible comment appear all the more worse. And to be fair, Dana White has also somewhat hinted at the same. During an interview with Tomi Lah
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