Dana White and Daniel Cormier deny Pereira's claim UFC pushed Gane vs. Hokit

Alex Pereira says the UFC steered fans toward Ciryl Gane vs. Josh Hokit instead of his rematch. On Tuesday, October 13, UFC CEO Dana White and commentator Daniel Cormier both denied it. White called the claim "not true" when he spoke to the media after his Contender Series event, according to BJPenn.com. Cormier answered in a YouTube video the same day, Heavy reported, and also posted on X, according to Sherdog.

Gane still defends the heavyweight title against Hokit in the UFC 334 main event on Saturday, November 14, at Madison Square Garden.

What Pereira said

Pereira made the accusation in an interview with Brazilian journalist Laerte Viana, reported in English by LowKick MMA on Monday. He spoke Portuguese, so his words reach us in translation. He said the UFC told him it had run a poll and that Gane vs. Hokit would be the fight, and added: "It's all kind of manipulated."

He also pointed at Cormier, who made the case for Gane vs. Hokit on YouTube within a day of Aspinall vacating, before the fight was announced, according to MMA Sucka. Pereira said that when he asked Cormier whether beating Gane would make him champion, Cormier told him he didn't think so. "So the guy has opinions that don't make sense," Pereira said.

The denials

White didn't give the idea much room. "These guys are the most paranoid people on the planet," he said at the post-fight news conference, which MMA Junkie posted on video. "I don't tell the fighters what to say. I don't tell the commentators what to say." He added that if the UFC policed what people said, Sean Strickland would have been gone years ago.

Cormier said: "I was not told by the UFC to promote this as the fight to happen." He then played a clip from before the White House card. In it, Pereira asks through his coach Plinio Cruz whether a win would make him the GOAT. "I didn't say he wouldn't be the champ; I said he wouldn't be the GOAT yet," Cormier said.

He put the rest down to "a miscommunication and a language barrier" and said he considers Pereira a friend. The two have clashed before. In May 2025, Cormier called Pereira "a liar" on his podcast, SI reported, after Pereira blamed hackers for a deleted post.

As of Wednesday, we found no reply from Pereira. We think the timing he points to is real: Cormier's case for Hokit was public before the booking. But an analyst having an opinion first isn't evidence the UFC handed it to him. Cormier's clip shows Pereira asking about the GOAT label, not the title, though we can't tell if it's the conversation Pereira means.

The poll question is unanswered. White didn't mention it in the remarks we found, and the UFC hasn't said whether a poll exists.

How the title picture got here

Gane stopped Pereira by TKO at 1:27 of the second round on June 14 at the White House, ESPN reported. It won Gane the interim title in Pereira's heavyweight debut. The betting had it close to a coin flip, with Pereira closing at -114 and Gane at -105. Pereira has since said there were illegal shots in the finish and has asked for an immediate rematch, according to MMA Sucka.

Tom Aspinall gave up the undisputed title on September 14 because of eye injuries, according to Al Jazeera, and Gane was promoted. Days later, the UFC announced Gane vs. Hokit during the UFC 331 broadcast, per Cageside Press.

Hokit (10-0) has won all four of his UFC fights, three by knockout. The last was a second-round knockout of Derrick Lewis on the same White House card. He was the betting favourite every time, and backing him in all four at closing odds would have returned +1.71 units. For UFC 334, the best prices today are Gane -263 and Hokit +215, roughly 69% to 31%. Those are current prices and will move before fight week.

Pereira (13-4) has his own date. He meets Sergei Pavlovich in the UFC 335 co-main event on December 12 in Las Vegas. MMA Sucka called it a potential title eliminator, but the UFC hasn't said the winner gets a shot.