Alex Pereira is not brushing off Josh Hokit’s UFC Freedom 250 press conference stunt as harmless fight-week noise.
Pereira addressed the messy exchange involving Hokit and Ilia Topuria, giving Topuria credit for stepping in when Hokit started clowning during the presser. The scene tied back to Hokit’s “Chama on your mama” shot at Pereira, which already got him tossed from the stage and turned the event into another bizarre Hokit sideshow.
Asked about Hokit’s behavior and Topuria standing up for him, Pereira said he did not fully understand everything being said in English, but he understood enough from the moment itself.
“You guys saw that there, you know what I mean?” Pereira said through translation. “I don’t understand English, and I think Topuria took offense to that. Topuria saw that and he stepped up as a brother.”
Watch the clip below:
Alex Pereira says Ilia Topuria stepped up like a brother after Josh Hokit started clowning at the press conference. 🤝👏
"I don’t understand English and I think Topuria took offense to that, and Topuria saw that and he stepped up as a brother. Ilia threw the bottle or bottle cap… pic.twitter.com/FC7ktFLGvF
— FREAK.MMA (@FREAKMMA1) May 18, 2026
Pereira then pointed to Topuria throwing something toward Hokit as the moment where the situation clearly crossed from trash talk into real irritation.
“Ilia threw the bottle or bottle cap, whatever the case was, at Hokit’s face,” Pereira said. “He saw that he was going too far.”
That matches how the press conference played out. Hokit has leaned hard into chaos during this UFC Freedom 250 run, but this one involved Pereira, Topuria, Derrick Lewis, and enough weird energy to make the stage feel one bad sentence away from security stepping in. MiddleEasy already covered the scene when Hokit got kicked out after the Alex Pereira insult and Ilia Topuria clash, and Pereira’s reaction adds a sharper layer to it.
Pereira Questions Hokit’s Respect After Topuria Clash
Pereira did not sound amused by Hokit’s act. He turned the focus away from himself and more toward what Hokit’s behavior says about him.
“How is Hokit even going to talk about that guy?” Pereira said. “Maybe he’s one of those guys that probably doesn’t even get along with his family.”
“You see the way the guy had that attitude,” Pereira continued. “Maybe he doesn’t get along with his brother, stuff like that. He doesn’t seem to be a guy that is part of the family.”
That is Pereira being Pereira. He is not screaming for attention or trying to win the internet in English. He is calmly saying the guy looked out of pocket, Topuria noticed it, and Topuria reacted like someone defending his own.
Topuria’s role matters because he is not Pereira’s teammate in the usual sense. He has his own business at UFC Freedom 250, with Topuria set across from Justin Gaethje while Pereira faces Ciryl Gane. Still, Pereira saw the reaction as brotherhood, not random drama.
Hokit will probably love that everyone is still talking about him. He has already leaned into the idea that MMA needs more wild personalities, even claiming the UFC 327 chaos helped make him Donald Trump’s “new favorite fighter”. Pereira’s read is different. To him, Topuria stepped in because the act went too far.
