Michelle Obama should feel honoured, apparently.

Do you know what the greatest compliment you can give a woman is? It’s not telling her she’s smart or kind or funny. No, it’s calling her a man. After all, what could be better than being a man?

These words of wisdom are brought to you by, you guessed it, a man. At last week’s UFC event on the White House lawn, the heavyweight fighter Josh Hokit yelled into the microphone: “Michelle Obama is a man. Am I right, America?”

His outburst drew mixed reactions. The crowd was largely quiet, but there were some laughs and boos. CNN reported that “in a brief moment captured on camera, Donald Trump … appeared to show a half-smile seconds after the false remark, which has previously circulated online”.

This week, Hokit decided to explain himself. It turns out he wasn’t engaging in “misogynoir”, Moya Bailey’s term for the anti-Black, racist misogyny that Black women experience. Not at all. During an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Hokit said he thought he was giving the former first lady “a compliment”. The silly woman should have been grateful! Hokit explained: “Michelle Obama being a man, that’s like, uh, she knows how to deal with adversity, know, she knows how to work hard like a man. You know, when the times get tough, you know, the tough keep going.”

I’m sure Hokit has suffered a few head injuries during his fighting career, but it seems even he might have realised how ridiculous that sounded. After host Ariel Helwani pushed back on this excuse, asking why Hokit had even brought Obama up, the fighter pivoted to talking about free speech.

“I thought it was a perfect opportunity to, you know, show the world how great this country is with the freedom of speech. You know you go somewhere [else in the world], and you say something like that, and you die.” He went on:........

© The Guardian