Heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane came face to face with undefeated challenger Josh Hokit in the middle of New York City, and the challenger wasted no time going at the champion. Gane arrived in a leather jacket over a hoodie, Hokit in a New York Yankees jersey, both in sunglasses for the chilly November evening. The glasses came off once they were nose to nose, and Hokit started talking.

"Thought you would be taller," Hokit told Gane, before adding that he would beat the champion at his own game. Then the challenger switched to a repeated one-word refrain — "Zebi, zebi" — a vulgar Maghrebi Arabic insult that left Gane asking what it meant.

"What does that mean? What does that mean?" Gane repeated, as Hokit refused to translate and insisted the Frenchman already knew. By the end of the exchange the champion had caught up — "Yeah, I know what that means" — but he never lost his composure, and afterward he brushed the whole thing off.

"No, it was not in French, it was an Arabic word but yeah, of course we use it a lot in France, but I'm not going to say what it means, it's a bad word, I don't want to," Gane said in an interview with Main Event TV. "It's all for show."

The tone matched the rest of Hokit's fight week. On Tuesday's edition of The Ariel Helwani Show, asked whether there was a line he would not cross, the challenger said: "He signed the contract, we're at war, and anything goes. No line. F*** him and his mom. It is what it is."

The stakes on Saturday

Gane (14-2, 1 NC) makes the first defense of his undisputed heavyweight title in the UFC 334 main event on Saturday, November 14, inside Madison Square Garden. He won the interim belt by stopping Alex Pereira at UFC Freedom 250 and was promoted to undisputed champion when Tom Aspinall vacated the title while dealing with the eye injury from their October 2025 no contest at UFC 321.

Hokit (10-0) has needed just four UFC victories to earn his first title opportunity, beating Curtis Blaydes and stopping Derrick Lewis along the way. The American has talked his way into the spotlight all week, and on Tuesday night he brought the same energy to the champion's face. Gane, for his part, has spent the week insisting the antics hide a serious fighter — and that the challenger is walking into a champion who has waited for this defense.

Harrison and Nunes, finally face to face

Gane and Hokit were not the only UFC 334 stars to face off under the Times Square lights. Women's bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison also stared down former teammate and two-division champion Amanda Nunes ahead of their long-awaited co-main event.

Harrison (19-1) captured the 135-pound championship by submitting Julianna Peña at UFC 316. The two-time Olympic gold medalist was initially expected to defend against Nunes earlier this year, but a neck injury forced the matchup to be postponed. Nunes (23-5) has not competed since retiring after her dominant title defense over Irene Aldana in June 2023 — a layoff of 1,253 days by fight night.

The former American Top Team training partners will finally settle their score on Saturday in one of the most significant women's fights in MMA history.

All four fighters will share the stage again at Thursday's UFC 334 pre-fight press conference before participating in the ceremonial weigh-ins on Friday.