Josh Hokit Gives His Theory on What Went Wrong for Ilia Topuria at UFC Freedom 250

Josh Hokit and Ilia Topuria fought on the same card recently at UFC Freedom 250. Hokit was on the undercard beating Derrick Lewis while ‘El Matador’ lost his undefeated record and lightweight belt in the main event against Justin Gaethje. Now, a few days after the event, the undefeated heavyweight has given his two cents on why the Spaniard suffered his first defeat in the cage.

The former double champion was defeated at the end of the fourth round by the ‘Highlight’. Despite being an overwhelming favorite, the rounds that preceded the stoppage were quite difficult for the now 17-1 lightweight. He was bloodied up by the American’s jab initially with the latter taking over the fight completely in the third round, even dropping Topuria with a right hand.

Following this unexpected turn of events, Josh Hokit has opined that the former lightweight champion’s loss comes down to mistakes he made in his training camp. The American claimed that the former featherweight’s training partners were scared of him, which led to him not training for all the necessary scenarios heading into his last fight.

Topuria makes the mistake of… he beats up his teammates, and so now the teammates fear him, where now he’s not getting a certain look. That’s the downfall of Topuria. If you’re always hitting people in the liver, you’re always dropping your teammates, the teammates are kind of shelled up. They’re scared to hit you…You want a healthy balance in practice… I think that’s why his distance and timing were off.

Josh Hokit via the Ariel Helwani Show

Josh Hokit offers an interesting theory on what went wrong for Ilia Topuria:

"Topuria makes the mistake of… he beats up his teammates, and so now the teammates fear him, where now he's not getting a certain look.

That's the downfall of Topuria. If you're always hitting people… pic.twitter.com/maiYeoVa29

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) June 23, 2026

Josh Hokit and Ilia Topuria are currently embroiled in a feud that began during a press conference for UFC Freedom 250 in Newark.

At that presser, the ‘Incredible Hok’ was originally targeting former interim heavyweight title challenger, Alex Pereira.

Some of his comments, which were directed at the Brazilian’s family, did not sit well with Topuria. As such, ‘El Matador’ came after Hokit and even threw an object at him before security escorted out the heavyweight.

Later, the former double champion even vowed to beat up the unapologetic American. Topuria is just one of the many people Hokit had outraged with even his boss, Dana White, bashing him for his comments during his White House octagon interview.

That said, the 28-year-old’s theory has also been contradicted by a retired UFC fighter very close to Ilia Topuria.

Jorge Masvidal contradicts Josh Hokit and insists that Ilia Topuria’s training was not the issue

Josh Hokit is not the only one to point a finger at Ilia Topuria’s training camp as the reason behind the Spaniard’s loss at UFC Freedom 250. Conor McGregor, who trolled Topuria for losing, also stated that he believed the Spaniard’s training camp was not intense enough.

However, while discussing the Irishman’s opinion on the former lightweight champion’s loss on the Deep Waters podcast, Jorge Masvidal revealed that he was told by someone within Topuria’s camp that they had brought in some elite fighters to prepare for Justin Gaethje.

My strength and conditioning coach for a long time, and Ilia’s head coach for strength and conditioning, same guy, Jesus Gallo… He told me he actually brought in, like, real good guys, some real good European kickboxers, couple good MMA guys. So I guess, I think it was just more, like, Ilia’s own strategy. Or maybe his camp was actually going so well that he thought he’d just walk right into Gaethje.

Jorge Masvidal via the Deep Waters podcast

While ‘Gamebred’ pushed back against the notion of Ilia Topuria having a sub-par training camp, he did acknowledge that the Spaniard did not have a great strategy to face Gaethje at the White House. Like Josh Hokit, Masvidal attributed this to the former champion’s training camp.

However, unlike Hokit, the inaugural BMF titleholder was of the opinion that Topuria’s camp had gone so well that it had made him overconfident against Gaethje. Ultimately, only ‘El Matador’ really knows what went wrong in his fight with the ‘Highlight’. Nonetheless, given his shocking of an upset it was, the speculation has not stopped nearly two weeks removed from it.

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