Josh Hockitt's bizarre attempt to draw attention to himself during the UFC 327 media event is more proof of why the company's product is falling apart.
Fight fans are used to this industry being a little weird. While two people going into a cage or ring attracts a lot of people, you still need to promote a fight to get people to spend their hard-earned money on tickets or streaming subscriptions to see it.
In their quest to make big bucks, fight fans have come up with a lot of things to help draw attention to the upcoming fight. And over the past 10 years, some UFC fighters have gone to strange and ugly places to promote their fights. However, on Wednesday, Josh Hockitt went to a silly spot in an attempt to draw interest for his return at UFC 327 this weekend.
Instead of the usual media day tradition of taking questions from the mixed martial arts media, the 28-year-old decided to deliver a pro wrestling-style promo while wearing his trademark American flag bandana and sunglasses. Although there have been UFC fighters in the past who have delivered some excellent wrestling promos (see: Chael Sonnen), Hokit has provided something truly bizarre.
While playing the character "The Incredible Hoke", he was breathing heavily, rhyming, and at one point began talking like a child. However, this was not the end of it. The UFC heavyweight then changed character, began using a Mexican-American accent and wore a knit cap over his eyes.
Additionally, in an effort to become the star of the UFC 327 media day, he tried to set up a one-on-one confrontation with Jiri Prochazka, one of the main event participants of the evening. Video of the strange scene can be found above.
Hockit's strange behavior has been condemned by UFC fans and analysts alike. But it still highlights one of the company's many content issues that have been worsening lately.
Only UFC is to blame for Josh Hockitt
Hokit, attempting to make a name for himself, is no stranger to promotion. The UFC has long been questioned for its ability to create stars. So in many cases over the last few decades, fighters have taken the lead in becoming household names.
This was a highly effective start to the 2010s for Chael Sonnen. In the late 2010s, former two-division champion and company icon Conor McGregor took it even further and became an international superstar due to his courageous and flamboyant personality. After him, Colby Covington rubbed many people the wrong way by creating a champion for MAGA leaning fans. Then, in recent years, former middleweight champion Sean Strickland has built a brand apart from xenophobic and sexist views.
However, they could back it up in the ring and had varying levels of charisma. This is not the case for most fighters, and many of them feel that they need to go to absurd lengths to gain notoriety and try to squeeze all the opportunities and money out of the sport.
The fight promotion style that the UFC has long nurtured is now going to strange places, but that's not the company's only problem.
Is the UFC losing its cool factor?
Over the years, as the company has tried to hold events almost every weekend, the quality of the product has declined.
Fans are complaining more and more about weak cards and weak main events. Making matters worse, while the Paramount+ era is better financially for fans, the UFC is much less willing to spend big bucks to make big fights if they can't use pay-per-view points to make deals.
PPVs are no longer an option, the UFC prefers to be cheap and it has become much more difficult to compete with elite stars like McGregor, Ronda Rousey, Jon Jones, Ilya Topuria or Islam Makhachev. So top talent competes less now. This has created a disappointing situation for the fans of the company.
The talent pool is shrinking, it's going to stupid places for self-promotion, and the quality of UFC events has diminished. The UFC has a historic card on the White House lawn in June that's just good rather than great. Although the company has grown considerably in recent years, it is still not as good as it was four or five years ago.
