It’s a bad look if Hocker is willing to publicly throw that out there, and then when Kerley takes him up on it, Hocker can’t back up his words.
Not a good look for distance running in general. If you’re going to talk garbage, at least be prepared to stand behind it.
For what it’s worth, I’d imagine Hocker would beat him by a long shot in 600m. It’s just stretching Kerley too far past his 400m ability.