Trump's UFC birthday brawl packed with fighters carrying disturbing baggage

A UFC fighter on President Donald Trump's White House birthday card once allegedly called his Black opponent a "human gorilla" — and he's far from the only fighter on the bill with baggage.

Trump requested veteran heavyweight Derrick Lewis for the card after watching Josh Hokit, 28, battle Lewis' future opponent at UFC 327 in April. Hokit was matched against Lewis for the event — a seven-fight card costing upwards of $60 million — and has since become one of its most talked-about fighters, for dubious reasons.

Josh Hokit

Hokit allegedly called Curtis Blaydes, who is Black, a "human gorilla" in the lead-up to their UFC 327 bout — the fight Trump watched before requesting Lewis for the White House card. Hokit is also no stranger to the N-word, has said he wished he could report his own Mexican mother to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and has repeatedly accused high-profile women of being men — including former first lady Michelle Obama and WNBA star Brittney Griner.

"'And P.S., Brittney Griner is a man,'" Hokit recited in a post-fight poem after his UFC debut in January. He has described himself as "100% transphobic." UFC CEO Dana White, asked about Hokit's post-fight octagon speech, said he hadn't seen it and offered only tepid pushback: "I don't love it."

Sean O'Malley

The card's bantamweight bout features former champion Sean O'Malley, who argued on a 2023 podcast that cheating on his wife was acceptable because self-described misogynist Andrew Tate — charged with rape and human trafficking in Romania — said so.

"'I'm a king, I pay for everything,'" O'Malley said. "'If I get a little puss on the side, what does that have to do with anything? Andrew Tate explains it well.'" More recently, O'Malley wore a surgical face mask during a face-off with Chinese fighter Song Yadong — a gesture Yadong called "totally racist." O'Malley later apologized, saying it was "a little silly joke."

Ilia Topuria

In the main event, lightweight champion Ilia Topuria returns for the first time since his ex-wife filed a domestic abuse complaint against him in December 2025. The two reached an out-of-court settlement in February; she withdrew the complaint.

"'These allegations are entirely unfounded,'" Topuria said in a December Instagram post, adding that he had submitted evidence to authorities to pursue legal action for "attempted extortion."

White was himself filmed slapping his wife at a nightclub on New Year's Eve 2022.