Josh Hokit got pepper sprayed in the face to get ready for Ciryl Gane’s eye pokes 😭 Gane’s last undisputed title fight against Tom Aspinall ended in a no contest after an accidental eye poke in round 1 at UFC 321. Hokit faces Gane at UFC 334 this Saturday at MSG. Is this genius or insane? 🎥 @joshhokit #joshhokit #cirylgane #ufc334
Josh Hokit says his preparation for Ciryl Gane included an unusual drill: getting pepper sprayed in the face to simulate the discomfort of an eye poke. Hokit faces Gane at UFC 334 this Saturday at Madison Square Garden.
The detail carries weight because of how Gane's last undisputed title defense ended. His fight with Tom Aspinall at UFC 321 on October 25, 2025 was stopped in round 1 and ruled a no contest after an accidental eye poke left Aspinall unable to continue.
The champion
Gane, a 36-year-old Frenchman who trains out of MMA Factory, enters at 14-2-0 and is listed as heavyweight champion. His most recent recorded fight came on June 14, 2026, at UFC Freedom 250, where he stopped Alex Pereira by KO/TKO in round 2 in a title fight. Before that came the Aspinall no contest, and before that a split decision win over Alexander Volkov at UFC 310 in December 2024.
The orthodox Gane stands six-foot-four with an 81-inch (206 cm) reach. His career numbers show a precise, high-output striker: 5.29 significant strikes landed per minute at 61 percent accuracy. He also averages 0.68 takedowns and 0.6 submission attempts per 15 minutes, modest figures that underline how much of his work happens on the feet.
Why it matters
- Reach is the crux of the eye-poke concern. Gane's jab and long-range flicks are the tools most often associated with that kind of contact, which is presumably what Hokit's drill was meant to address.
- Gane's 61 percent striking accuracy at more than five landed strikes a minute means an opponent faces a steady volume of strikes in the range where such incidents occur.
- Gane is fresh off a second-round stoppage of Pereira, so he arrives in Madison Square Garden with the most recent result in his recorded history being a win.
The pepper spray claim comes from Hokit himself, who showed off the preparation in his own social media post. Whether the drill is clever conditioning or simply extreme, it speaks to how much the Aspinall finish has shaped the way opponents think about facing the champion.
