Josh Hokit on UFC White House booking, hospital talk with Blaydes

Josh Hokit was still seeing stars from his heavyweight war with Curtis Blaydes when someone told him he'd be fighting at the White House.

Hokit earned the June 14 spot after outlasting Blaydes in a three-round slugfest at UFC 327 in April that set a record for most significant strikes landed in a heavyweight bout. MMA Fighting reports that the 28-year-old found out about the Derrick Lewis matchup — personally requested by President Donald Trump that night in Miami — while still trying to process what had just happened in the cage.

"The tweety birds were circling my head from that fight," Hokit said. "It wasn't so much like he punched me so hard the tweety birds were circling around, but I mean, if there's like some birds floating around you from exhaustion, that was what was circling around me. And then one of the birds just stopped and said, 'Hey, you want to fight at the White House?'"

What Hokit told Blaydes at the hospital

Hokit skipped all post-fight media and headed straight to a medical facility alongside Blaydes. The pair had just combined for 354 significant strikes across three rounds. When they arrived at the hospital on gurneys, Hokit broke the tension. "I was like, 'Curtis, you could have made it easy. You could have just gave up and we didn't have to go through all this,'" he told MMA Fighting. He credited Blaydes for refusing to fold despite absorbing clean punches throughout the bout.

Hokit admitted he sensed the fight might turn into a grind. A week before UFC 327, he told coach Greg Jackson he had a feeling it would be a war based on how sparring sessions were going and what Blaydes had shown on tape. "For the most part, Curtis never put that on tape," Hokit said of any sign of breaking. "He has like the most takedowns in a heavyweight fight, or in the heavyweight division, and that takes a lot of cardio."

Hokit faces Lewis at the White House event Saturday, squaring off against the UFC's all-time knockout leader in front of the president who hand-picked the matchup.

Reported via:

• MMA Fighting — Josh Hokit reveals how he found out about UFC White House fight, what he said to Curtis Blaydes at hospital