Fox News host Greg Gutfeld defended comments by UFC fighter Josh Hokit in which he called former First Lady Michelle Obama a man by downplaying it as the fighter just being a “troll,” and adding that the right enjoyed it when the left was “upset.”

The controversy arose from what Hokit said after his match Sunday evening at the “UFC Freedom 250” match held on the White House South Lawn on the same day as President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday.

After the heavyweight fighter won via TKO, leaving his undefeated UFC career intact, he had a triumphant interview with podcaster Joe Rogan.

“And lastly, Michelle Obama is a man! Am I right, America?” Hokit yelled as a grinning Rogan held the microphone and the crowd offered a mixture of cheers and boos.

Hokit got a lot of swift and loud condemnation, including from UFC President Dana White, who emphasized he supported free speech, “but I hate that kind of nonsense,” and was “completely against saying nasty and false things about people’s families.”

Barstool’s Dave Portnoy blasted Hokit for being among the “idiots” and “lunatics” who give UFC a bad name, and called on Trump to denounce what he’d said — but thus far, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung just dodged the question when asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper, only offering praise for Hokit’s prowess in the octagon.

On Monday’s episode of The Five, co-host Jessica Tarlov (the day’s designated liberal member of the panel), was discussing the UFC event and remarked that she was “proud to be an American no matter who the president is,” and called it “important to spend some time” celebrating the country’s 250th birthday.

UFC is “not my jam,” Tarlov noted, but “the flyover looked really cool.” However, she noted, her co-host Jesse Watters and others were saying the event was “about America’s birthday,” but “it was not lost on anyone that you could only watch it on Paramount+, on David Ellison’s streaming service, or that he’s paying the fighters in crypto and it’s the Trump family coin-”

“Paramount owns UFC,” said Watters. “They own the rights.”

“If it’s for all of us, they should have found a way so that all of us could watch,” Tarlov retorted, and then brought up what Hokit had said after his fight, at the end of the event.

“That was his final message, so you had a guy who vomited on himself during a weigh-in the day before,” said Tarlov. “Stands up there, Joe Rogan — maybe he was paralyzed in the moment and didn’t think, ‘Oh, I should emphasize the fact that Michelle Obama, a former first lady — since we’re talking about patriotism and paying our respects to the White House and those who’ve come before us — is not a man.'”

“He’s not running for Senate,” said Gutfeld, grinning as Watters chuckled.

“It doesn’t — and then the White House today won’t even clean it up,” Tarlov continued. “Steven Cheung is like, ‘well Josh Hokit had a great night.’ Dana White is out there saying this is no good. Portnoy, Shane Gillis. Everybody knows that it is repulsive! And I presume you guys know this as well. That shouldn’t be-”

“How about Platner?” Gutfeld interrupted, bringing up Graham Platner, the Democrat running for Senate in Maine.

“Why can’t you say that the guy should never have said that Michelle Obama is a man-” Tarlov asked.

“Because I’m merely pointing out, there’s nobody on the left that has any credibility to ask us that question!” said Gutfeld.

“Because we don’t know ‘what a woman is’? Is that what you’re-” said Tarlov.

“No! Because you guys have kept silent on everything!” replied Gutfeld.

“Stop it! Come on!” hissed an exasperated Tarlov as she threw her hand up.

Gutfeld continued:

Hell, I seem to remember, not too long ago, how often I heard that Melania Trump was an escort — and from a lot of people who are now “oh, oh, oh!” huffing and huffing. People who say that a Black kid who stabs a White kid, that was just him defending himself. People faking Charlie Kirk getting stabbed in the neck, thinking it’s funny. People hoping for another Luigi Mangioni to take out Elon Musk or perhaps Trump or maybe both!

See, we don’t have to listen. In fact, we enjoy it when you’re upset.

That guy is a troll. He showed up at the weigh-in pretending he was drunk and was throwing up applesauce as a fake pretense because he was pretending he was scared. That’s called a troll. We get it. Not our fault if you don’t. He knows it’s going to upset you. He’s a troll! You give a mic to a troll?

“We’ve got to have some standards,” Tarlov replied.

“Vote for Platner!” Gutfeld shouted back at her, laughing and slapping his knee. “You lost your credibility!”

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!