Josh Hokit refuses to back down from controversial Michelle Obama comments in first interview after UFC Freedom 250

Josh Hokit made plenty of noise — as usual — after his win over Derrick Lewis at UFC Freedom 250 at the White House. But rather than his performance gaining attention, it was Hokit's post-fight interview that garnered headlines in the days after the event.

>Known for his brash character work and controversial interviews, the heavyweight contender initially appeared to speak without a persona following his second-round stoppage of Lewis. That was, until he closed out his in-cage interview with Joe Rogan by calling the former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, “a man.”

>Speaking Tuesday on "The Ariel Helwani Show" in his first interview since the fight, in a rare appearance as himself rather than a character, Hokit declined to apologize and said he has no regrets about the comments he made on UFC's arguable biggest platform ever.

>"I thought I was giving her a compliment," Hokit told Uncrowned. "Michelle Obama, being a man, that's like, she knows how to deal with adversity. She knows how to work hard like a man; when the times get tough, the tough keep going.

>"I thought it was a perfect opportunity to show the world how great this country is with the freedom of speech. You can go somewhere and you say something like that, and you die. And I'm not suicidal, by the way; I'm in good spirits. I'm a little under the weather right now, but other than that, I'm good. And so in other parts of the world, you say something like that, and you're not here to speak to Ariel Helwani, you know?"

Hokit, 28, hasn't been shy to trash-talk anyone and everyone since arriving in the UFC late last year. Considering the large viewership UFC Freedom 250 figures released by Paramount, and the attention the event drew as a White House spectacle, Hokit's latest remark generated his most blowback yet. But that doesn't mean he regrets it.

>"There's a certain side that pokes at another side and there's no outrage there. And so I thought it was a perfect time to take a jab," Hokit said.

>"That's one thing about my career. I’m never going to — I think I was watching a [Henry] Cejudo video and he was like, ‘That’s one thing I regret, is all the stuff I did [to promote fights].’ Or you hear people backtrack — even the [Sean] Strickland post-fight speech [after the Khamzat Chimaev fight], where he was like, 'I'm trying to sell the fight, and I don't mean the things I say.' You'll never hear me backtrack from what I say."

>UFC CEO Dana White was among the many voices to condemn Hokit's comment. White called the remarks “nasty” and “nonsense” the morning after UFC Freedom 250, then echoed those thoughts again Saturday after UFC Vegas 119, distancing himself from Hokit's "disgusting" remark but also reiterating that White believes in free speech.

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>Ultimately, Hokit has become a top UFC contender at heavyweight despite the controversy, extending his undefeated promotional record to 4-0 with his latest win. Hokit said 2026 has already been a million-dollar year for him in the UFC and that neither White nor UFC CBO Hunter Campbell reached out to him about his post-fight comments.

>As for everyone else, he's not concerned.

>If Hokit had made a remark like that in his past life while on the NFL's San Francisco 49ers practice squad, he knows he wouldn't have expected to keep his spot on the roster.

>"That's why I respect [White] so much," Hokit said. "That's why I wanted to fight in the UFC, because you got bosses like that. If I would have said that in the NFL, I don't have a job anymore. That's why I respect them so much. Yeah, they could always feel some type of way, I respect their opinions, but we do got freedom of speech. So it is what it is. I don't like what other people say, but I’ve got to deal with it, I’ve got to live with it."

>"At the end of the day, I don't care [if anyone's upset]. Now, I'm not trying to piss off the Dana Whites and Hunter Campbells. But they would also message me if they really felt like a certain way. They could comment and stuff like that, but if they really felt a type of way, they would message me. All the other people, they weren't there when I was down. They weren't there when I was broken. So, I could care less what anybody thinks. I'm here to make a splash and back up my words. If anybody feels some type of way, they know where to find me."