Josh Hokit has exploded on to the scene over the last year, landing a shot at the UFC heavyweight title within a year of his debut.

Former NFL star Hokit hadn’t even fought under the UFC banner this time last year, but after four impressive wins and some reshuffling atop the division he has found himself fighting for the belt. He takes on the newly-elevated Ciryl Gane in the main event of UFC 334 at Madison Square Garden.

Give us your early predictions for the UFC 334 main event

One of his key training partners is UFC veteran and current BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing star Cody East, who is a mainstay of Jackson Wink. The pair have been training together in preparation for their respective fights, with East facing Isaac Villanueva tonight in Biloxi.

Cody East explains Josh Hokit’s game plan for UFC 334

In his four UFC outings thus far, Josh Hokit has landed three knockouts on the feet and one Fight of the Year contender decision over Curtis Blaydes. This is despite his background being in wrestling, where he competed to NCAA Division I All-American status while also playing football at Fresno State.

He faces far and away the toughest test of his young career when he takes on Ciryl Gane. The Frenchman is a decorated kickboxer and two-time interim heavyweight champion with wins over the likes of Alex Pereira, Alexander Volkov twice and Junior Dos Santos.

And speaking exclusively with Bloody Elbow, his sparring partner Cody East explained that the plan is to revert to Hokit’s wrestling and attack Gane in the way that cost him against Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou.

“I’ve helped Jon Jones get ready for his first title fight and I’ve been involved in many world title camps so I’m happy to be a part of it again,” East said. “We’ve got many guys right behind Josh, he’s the first of many.

“It’s going to be a fight, right? Ciryl Gane has very good movement and we can’t get into playing tag with him. You can’t beat him in that kind of fight. You’ve got to pressure him and put him on his back and I feel like he didn’t show what he is capable of against Jon Jones when he got rag dolled.

“He can grapple better than that, he can wrestle better than that, that’s not a good reflection of his skillset. But he wasn’t that comfortable there off his back so Josh is going to put him on his back and rough him up.

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“I’m sure Ciryl Gane will get up a few times but can you do that for five rounds? I think Josh will grind him down and it’s not going to be a pretty fight, it’s going to be a war… Josh has got that dog in him and he likes to fight.

“People will be saying ‘you’ve got to take Ciryl Gane out’ and he’ll probably want to say ‘alright, watch this’. You never really know what Josh is going to do because he’s got three personalities so you never know which one is going to show up!

“As long as he mixes everything together then he’s going to be just fine.”