Sean Strickland blasts Josh Hokit over 13-year-old Jake Paul act
josh hokit is drawing fresh attention after Sean Strickland said on Tuesday that the UFC heavyweight is acting like “f*cking Jake Paul when he was 13.” The exchange pushed Hokit’s promotional style back into the spotlight just as he heads toward a June fight with Derrick Lewis at the UFC White House card.
Strickland made the criticism during a media scrum and said, “It’s like Josh Hokit. It’s like dude, you’re a grown ass man. You’re almost 30 years old and you’re acting like f*cking Jake Paul when he was 13. Like stop, bro. You made it. People know who you are. Just stop. You don’t got to go interview homeless people and be f*cking weird. Just fight now.” He also said Hokit had built “a fabricated image” that reminded him of “a WWE skit.”
Strickland’s line in the sand
Strickland did not frame Hokit as an enemy. He said, “The thing I don’t like about Josh and I’ve met Josh, I’ve trained with Josh — he’s actually a really likeable guy,” and added, “He came to the gym, he’s a really nice guy, consider him a friend of mine. We follow each other on [Instagram].” That makes the criticism less about personal fallout than about where Hokit draws the line between selling fights and turning himself into the act.
Strickland’s complaint also landed because Hokit has leaned hard into the persona. The former NFL player turned fighter has used rehearsed lines in press conferences and media appearances, and Dana White has said he does not enjoy that style whatsoever. In UFC terms, that kind of split matters: a fighter can be pushed as a feature attraction while still irritating the person running the promotion.
Hokit’s Twitter counterpunch
Hokit answered on Twitter with, “Let’s fight… I’ll show you the difference between me and Jake Paul.” He followed with, “[Sean] Strickland, complaining about a persona is like a circus clown complaining about too many balloons. You’re just mad because my WWE skit has better ratings than your personality.”
That response kept the argument on Hokit’s terms. Instead of backing away from the criticism, he doubled down on the same performance-first identity Strickland attacked, turning the dispute into another piece of promotion rather than a retreat from it.
Lewis waits in June
Hokit is undefeated in the UFC and is about to fight Derrick Lewis at the UFC White House card in June. He has already used that platform to build attention, including rhyming every line during a press conference or media day appearance and threatening to throw down with Jiri Prochazka just days before both were scheduled to compete on the same card.
For now, the practical read is simple: Hokit’s act is not slowing down, and the UFC is still giving him big slots while his name travels beyond the cage. Strickland’s criticism did not undercut that trajectory; it gave Hokit another talking point to carry into a June fight that will now arrive with more noise around the persona than the matchup itself.
