Gane Survives Hokit War to Retain Heavyweight Title at UFC 334

Ciryl Gane is still the UFC heavyweight champion, but Josh Hokit made him earn every second of it. Gane retained the undisputed title with a unanimous decision over Hokit in the main event of UFC 334 on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York, with all three judges scoring the five-round fight 48-47 for the Frenchman. It was Gane's first defence of the undisputed crown.

The challenger wasted no time announcing himself. Hokit charged forward in the opening seconds, shot for a takedown and tripped the champion to the canvas. Gane scrambled back to his feet, but the tone was set: this would not be the measured, technical striking exhibition that has defined so much of Gane's career. Hokit pressed forward with wide overhand rights, and before the end of the first round he lifted and slammed Gane to the mat. The champion landed sharp jabs, yet he looked rattled, unable to find his usual range and rhythm.

Hokit found another gear in the second round. He kept Gane in the pocket, throwing in volume and never giving the champion space to breathe. His right hands bloodied Gane's nose, and the Frenchman's output dropped as he fought with his mouth open. The third round followed the same pattern. Hokit caught a knee to the body, took Gane's back, and after the champion stood, landed short elbows in the clinch for much of the rest of the round. At the midway point, the unbeaten challenger looked on course for a great heavyweight upset.

Then the fight turned. Gane, who had been fading badly, found a second wind in the fourth round. He began using uppercuts to deter Hokit's entries and worked short body punches in the clinch, and for the first time he integrated his kicks into the attack at distance. Hokit's punches lost some of their power as his own pace caught up with him, and Gane started landing more consistently to the body. The champion took the fourth clearly, and the momentum that had belonged entirely to the challenger suddenly belonged to him.

The fifth round was fought at a pace few heavyweight fights ever reach. Gane tested Hokit's chin more than he had in the previous twenty minutes, and Hokit kept moving forward and ate what the champion threw. With about a minute left, Hokit caught Gane with two hard right hooks, but he could not follow up, and Gane kept mixing his attacks to the head and body until the final bell. When it sounded, the crowd at Madison Square Garden was already on its feet. Gane grabbed the top of the cage to catch his breath while Hokit flipped him off, as he had done several times during the bout. The judges, however, had the champion ahead by a single round on every card.

"All the people around the world underestimated him. Not me. He did so well tonight. It was a tough fight," Gane said afterwards, paying tribute to a challenger few had given a chance against him. The praise was genuine. Hokit, a former San Francisco 49ers player who came to mixed martial arts through wrestling, Bellator and the LFA before earning his UFC contract on Dana White's Contender Series, had entered the night at 10-0. He leaves it at 10-1, with his first professional defeat, but also with his reputation transformed. His back-and-forth brawl with Curtis Blaydes at UFC 327 in March had pushed him toward this opportunity; Saturday night proved he belonged in it.

For Gane, the win closes a strange chapter. He won interim gold in June with a second-round stoppage of Alex Pereira at UFC Freedom 250, and when Tom Aspinall vacated the title because of an extended eye injury, Gane was named undisputed champion in September. Saturday was his first defence, and it answered the question that has followed him since he took the belt without winning it in the cage: could he survive a five-round war against a challenger who refused to let him fight his fight? The answer, by the narrowest of margins, was yes. Gane moves to 15-2 as a professional, and he now holds a title defence to go with the belt.

The result was not without its dissenters. Alex Pereira, the man Gane stopped to win interim gold, believed Hokit had done enough to win and told the American so backstage after the main event. But no protest changes the official result, and none takes away from a fight immediately recognised as one of the finest heavyweight contests the promotion has staged.

In the co-main event, Kayla Harrison retained the women's bantamweight title by submitting Amanda Nunes with a rear-naked choke at 1:29 of the fourth round. Nunes, the former two-division champion, was fighting for the first time since retiring as champion in June 2023, while Harrison was returning from neck surgery. Harrison, now 20-1, controlled long stretches from top position before catching a kick in the fourth and taking Nunes's back to secure the finish. Caio Borralho defeated Yousri Belgaroui by unanimous decision, 30-27 on all three cards, while Kevin Holland and Uros Medic fought to a majority draw after Medic was deducted a point in the second round.

Gane weighed in at 242.6 pounds to Hokit's 231.4, but the gap meant nothing once the cage door closed. What mattered was durability, and both men had it in abundance. Hokit proved his rise was no accident, and Gane proved that a champion hurt, tired and outworked for three rounds can still find a way to win the last two. The division has a champion with a defence on his record now, and a challenger who will demand another chance.