Ilia Topuria explains how Josh Hokit made his 'blood boil' at UFC Freedom 250 presser
Ilia Topuria justified why he defended Alex Pereira against Josh Hokit at the UFC Freedom 250 press conference earlier this month.
UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria justified why he defended Alex Pereira against Josh Hokit at the UFC Freedom 250 press conference. Topuria (17-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) threw an object toward Hokit (9-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) during their pre-fight press conference earlier this month after the rising heavyweight star trash talked former champion Pereira. Topuria felt the need to come to the defense of Pereira (13-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC), who doesn't speak English.
In a recent interview with MMA Junkie , Pereira dismissed Hokit's antics but was appreciative of Topuria stepping up for him. "I couldn't believe it," Topuria said in a translated interview with ABC . "Look, I've been at many press conferences.
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. Since there was so much noise, you couldn't hear much.
I said, I can't believe he's saying all this stuff for no reason because you're not even going to fight him. "I mean, what for? You can talk about the other's professionalism.