Ilia Topuria explains why he went after Josh Hokit during wild UFC press conference
UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria has explained why he had such a problem with Josh Hokit’s controversial remarks towards Alex Pereira at the UFC Freedom 250 press conference.
As we know, Ilia Topuria is one of the biggest stars in mixed martial arts today – especially across Europe. He tends to be able to keep his cool more often than not, especially in the build-up to fights, but that wasn’t exactly the case when he heard Josh Hokit insult Alex Pereira’s mother during the UFC Freedom 250 press conference.
Ilia Topuria shot up out of his chair and looked eager to confront Hokit who, as we know, is a fairly loathed figure by a lot of people in the MMA community as a result of his new ‘gimmick’ that he has debuted in his last couple of fights.
In a recent interview, Ilia Topuria went into more detail about why he reacted in the manner that he did.
Ilia Topuria on Josh Hokit’s press conference antics
“I couldn’t believe it,” Topuria said during a recent interview.
“Look, I’ve been at many press conferences, and I’ve seen everything, but I’ve never seen anyone stand up and talk about someone’s mother in such a disrespectful way. It was pretty disrespectful.
“I can’t believe he’s saying all of this stuff, for no reason, because you’re not even going to fight him [Alex Pereira].
“Talking about another’s mother in that way just made my blood boil. We can’t set that example here; millions of people are watching us and how you’re talking.
“Lucky he had so many security people there. One of us was gonna come out worse off, and it wasn’t going to be me.”
Quotes via Bloody Elbow
El Matador is a pretty intimidating guy when he wants to be, but when you put all of this to one side, both men still have a job to do when we arrive at the White House next month. Ilia will try and keep hold of his belt against Justin Gaethje, whereas Hokit faces a huge challenge in the form of the legendary Derrick Lewis.
