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While Dana White has spent recent weeks and months trying his best to assert that neither he nor the UFC are political, heavyweight Josh Hokit didn’t get the memo. After beating Derrick Lewis at UFC Freedom 250 on Sunday night, Hokit declared that “Michelle Obama is a man.”
After UFC Freedom 250, Dana White was asked to comment on Josh Hokit’s shot at former First Lady Michelle Obama and distanced himself from Hokit’s conspiratorial proclamation.
Dana White distanced himself from Josh Hokit’s comments about Michelle Obama and said he “hates that kind of thing”
“I understand that the Obamas are public figures but I’m completely against saying nasty and false things about people’s families… Everyone knows my position on free speech but I hate that kind of nonsense,” White told TIME.
Speaking to the media after the fight, White said that he hoped the event “created some unit in the country.” Already facing an uphill battle toward bipartisan approval, Hokit’s comments immediately undercut any aspirations of having the event not be politicized. Furthermore, whatever sense of “unity” White was hoping to foster was exclusive to Paramount+ users, as the fight was paywalled behind the streaming service and not widely available to the public unless they subscribed to the streamer.
Dana White: Hopefully, we created some unity in the country and in the world and brought in some new fans. I hope that’s what we walk away with tonight. pic.twitter.com/mW5d0hhOuo
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) June 15, 2026
Hokit’s comments about Michelle Obama was just one of many controversial moments on the night. One of the biggest UFC Freedom 250 storylines, in fact, didn’t unfold in the octagon but on social media, as Daniel Cormier’s X/Twitter account tweeted and deleted alleged messages from Eric Trump asking if any of the fights were “rigged.”
Cormier has since said that his account was “hacked or something,” while Trump claimed that he’s never spoken to DC and that the screenshots of the messages were “AI generated.”
In the alleged messages, Trump was seeking information about the Diego Lopes vs. Steve Garcia fight, as he believed that the underdog Garcia could pull off the upset (Garcia had odds of +136). The favored Lopes won by TKO in the second round, however.
The 28 year old Hokit — who went viral at Saturday’s weigh-ins when he stumbled up to the scale and puked on himself — defeated Derrick Lewis by TKO in the second round to improve to 10-0-0 in his UFC career.