MightyCast<\/a>, where he shared his explanation for why he was released.<\/p>\n\u201cFirst of all, I was fighting on the last fight deal contract against Manel, so it all depended on my performance,\u201d Mokaev said. \u201cSo basically Mick Maynard is the matchmaker of UFC flyweight division, and the story is he asked Dana to keep the division and he wanted more exciting fighters. Exciting fighters, for UFC, it\u2019s strikers, strikers with finishes. For myself, I would go sometimes, I did seven fights within two years and to make flyweight it is hard, so within two years I had seven fights, four of them were top 15 opponents, and basically the more I fought, the less performance I showed because the longer you\u2019re in training camp you just get tired of it. You get tired of it and I started with great performance and start slowing down and I just didn\u2019t have that hunger, but I just thought I need to reach to the title, reach to the title, everything was in my head was just Pantoja, that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just there, maybe win by decision, I didn\u2019t care, but only guy who was in my head was Pantoja, that\u2019s it. Basically I was fighting against Manel on the last fight deal, and if I knocked him out, they would definitely sign me and give me the best deal, but I didn\u2019t finish him and basically they didn\u2019t re-sign me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mokaev looked to be a surefire title challenger when he began his UFC career 5-0 with two Performance of the Night bonuses before he\u2019d even turned 24. His sixth UFC win came against longtime contender Alex Perez, and he appeared to be poised to challenge for a belt with a strong performance against Kape.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for both fighters, the grudge match turned out to be a dud, which was especially damaging for Mokaev. His heavy emphasis on grappling resulted in a couple of uneven performances even during his winning stretch, and he knew a forgettable fight with Kape could spell his end with the UFC.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been told, listen, you need to be told you need to put performance like go out there and take the risks if you want a new contract,\u201d Mokaev said. \u201cI\u2019ve been told that. It wasn\u2019t something [with] the trouble I did outside the hotel. It didn\u2019t help, but it wasn\u2019t the main reason.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was all about the performance and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair because we are mixed martial artists and I was 23 years old when I was 7-0 in UFC and they have to understand that I cannot be the best Mokaev like flying knees and stuff every fight. Sometimes, fight can be ugly. It depends on the opponents as well. It depends on the opponents and basically I felt that I was going to get cut.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now 25, Mokaev has won a pair of MMA bouts and saw his hand raised in an appearance for Karate Combat since parting ways with the UFC in 2024. According to Mokaev, he\u2019s free to negotiate with the UFC at any time because he claims he\u2019s been working without a contract.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never signed paper outside of UFC with any other organization,\u201d Mokaev said. \u201cEven just one-fight deal, two-fight deal, no deal, just me and good relationship and loyalty. From my side, I have to make weight and turn up to the event and they know I\u2019m a man of my word. Thirty-eight fights, never pulled out from a fight. I never miss weight as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is risky, but I will find them,\u201d Mokaev joked when asked if he\u2019s been worried about not getting paid.<\/p>\n
Mokaev made it clear the investments he has outside of fighting have him financially secure, so his main motivation for fighting in the UFC again is to claim a title there. He\u2019s yet to lose in 16 pro bouts and as long as that streak continues, he\u2019s confident he\u2019ll step into the octagon again.<\/p>\n
\u201cMain thing from my side, to get better, to stay active, stay active on the media, stay active on the competition,\u201d Mokaev said. \u201cNot like most fighters getting cut from UFC and they just disappear and think they\u2019ll never come back. In my head, everything is possible in this life. Just keep doing from my side so I don\u2019t regret it when I\u2019m 30 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Muhammad Mokaev didn\u2019t play the UFC\u2019s game, and he paid the price. Following a grudge match with Manel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702],"class_list":["post-52528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}