UFC’s Josh Hokit insults Brittney Griner in post-fight interview as Joe Rogan laughs

Josh Hokit didn’t need much time to finish Denzel Freeman in their heavyweight bout at UFC 324 on Saturday night.

Then, he grabbed the microphone for his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan and recited a poem that ended with “And P.S., Brittney Griner is a man.”

Josh Hokit just made Paramount broadcast “Britney Griner is a man” and the crowd goes wild! 🤣 pic.twitter.com/N54XGoM9ni

— Owen Shroyer (@OwenShroyer1776) January 25, 2026

Rogan’s role as the UFC’s lead color commentator puts him in a position to either challenge or validate what fighters say during post-fight interviews. When Hokit made his comment about Griner, Rogan had the microphone and the platform to respond however he chose. He chose to laugh and frame it as Griner “catching strays,” as if she were an unintended target rather than someone Hokit specifically named in a prepared statement.

Paramount+, which broadcast UFC 324, declined to comment when contacted by reporters about Hokit’s statement.

Dana White, however, did say he didn’t “love it.”

Dana White on Josh Hokit’s post fight interview: I heard about it. I didn’t see it. I don’t love it. pic.twitter.com/sZspPWWfxf

— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) January 25, 2026

The comment targeted Griner, a three-time Olympic gold medalist, 10-time WNBA All-Star, and two-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year. She led Baylor to a perfect 40-0 season and an NCAA championship in 2012, won a WNBA title with Phoenix in 2014, and ranks second all-time in WNBA blocks with 859. She set the NCAA record for career blocks with 748, a mark that still stands for both men’s and women’s basketball.

She’s also faced transphobic attacks for years despite being a cisgender woman, simply because she’s 6-foot-9 and doesn’t conform to traditional feminine stereotypes. The attacks intensified during her wrongful detention in Russia in 2022, when she spent nearly 10 months in custody after being arrested at a Moscow airport for possessing cannabis oil. She was released as part of a prisoner exchange in December 2022. Throughout that ordeal, she faced mockery from people who saw her imprisonment as an opportunity to make jokes about her gender presentation.

Hokit, 28, is a former Fresno State wrestler and football player who spent time on practice squads with the San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals before transitioning to MMA in 2023. He earned his UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series in August 2025, where he told reporters he “left the liberal, snowflake NFL to do a real man’s sport in a real man’s promotion.” After that fight, he said he wanted to compete against “sex traffickers, pedophiles, rapists, hell, you can even throw the transgenders in there.”

Remarks like this are exactly why Griner is repeatedly pulled into these fights. Sadly, it’s a pattern she knows all too well as she remains a convenient prop for anyone looking to score cheap points in the culture wars.