Josh Hokit posted screenshots of a text exchange with Paulo Costa in which the Brazilian demands $100,000. Costa wrote "100k and we're even. Give me my money back," to which Hokit responded by asking if Costa likes pizza, then making a crude joke. Costa replied that he eats a lot of pizza to gain weight to fight Hokit. In the post caption, Hokit added "Stupid Brazilian," further antagonizing his potential opponent. The nature of the alleged debt between the two fighters remains unclear.
Josh Hokit went public with a text exchange involving Paulo Costa on April 18, posting screenshots that show the ranked middleweight demanding $100,000 from the undefeated prospect and setting off a back-and-forth that quickly turned ugly.
In the messages, Costa wrote "100k and we're even. Give me my money back," a demand that Hokit met not with a payment plan but with a pizza joke. When Hokit asked Costa whether he liked pizza, Costa responded that he eats plenty of it to bulk up and fight Hokit. Hokit then made a crude remark and, in the caption accompanying his post, called Costa a "Stupid Brazilian." What the alleged debt actually involves has not been explained by either fighter.
Costa, 35, carries a 16-4 record and is ranked 13th in the UFC middleweight division. Fighting out of Brazil under Team Borracha, the orthodox striker is one of the more physically imposing fighters in the 185-pound class at six-foot-one with a 72-inch reach. He lands 6.26 significant strikes per minute at a 58 percent accuracy rate, numbers that place him among the division's most dangerous stand-up fighters.
Hokit, 28, is undefeated at 5-0 and goes by "The Incredible Hok." He has yet to accumulate significant tracked statistics at the UFC level, but his clean record puts him in the conversation as a rising middleweight name.
Why it matters
- The nature of the alleged $100,000 debt is unresolved, leaving the core of the dispute unexplained.
- Hokit's public mockery, including the ethnic slur in the caption, significantly escalates tensions between the two fighters.
- Costa sits just outside the top twelve at middleweight, making any fight between him and a rising prospect a potentially meaningful step up in competition for Hokit.
