{"id":842958,"date":"2026-08-02T19:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T19:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/842958\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T19:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T19:12:09","slug":"makhmud-muradov-becomes-two-division-oktagon-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/842958\/","title":{"rendered":"Makhmud Muradov becomes two-division Oktagon champion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The former UFC fighter won the Oktagon middleweight interim title last year before moving up to light heavyweight and capturing another belt.<\/p>\n<p>Released from the <a href=\"https:\/\/mmasucka.com\/..\/..\/ufc\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC<\/a> in February 2024 after a rough stretch, Makhmud Muradov has found glory elsewhere. On Saturday, the Uzbek fighter completed a remarkable career comeback by becoming a two-division <a href=\"https:\/\/mmasucka.com\/..\/..\/news\/oktagon-amazing-stuff\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oktagon MMA<\/a> champion with a dramatic victory over <a href=\"https:\/\/mmasucka.com\/..\/..\/news\/oktagon-dont-want-me-to-smash-vemola\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Will Fleury<\/a>. Muradov moved up to light heavyweight and captured the 205-pound title after previously winning the middleweight interim belt in the promotion.<\/p>\n<p>Muradov defeated Will Fleury for the light heavyweight title in an intense matchup. In the first round, Fleury connected with a powerful left hook that sent Muradov crashing to the canvas. The Uzbek fighter was visibly shaken by the blow but was saved by the end of the round.<\/p>\n<p>Despite returning to his corner dazed during the break, Muradov was able to clear his head and recover. Early in the second round, the Uzbek fighter flipped the script with a devastating right hand. Seizing the moment, Muradov followed up with ground-and-pound, forcing the referee to step in and stop the fight.<\/p>\n<p>Makhmud Muradov: From UFC Release to Two-Division Champion<\/p>\n<p>Fighting under the UFC&#8217;s banner for more than four years, Muradov recorded wins over names such as Alessio Di Chirico and <a href=\"https:\/\/mmasucka.com\/..\/..\/news\/robbie-lawler-vs-bryan-barberena-ufc-276-recap\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bryan Barberena<\/a>. In February 2024, after winning just one of his last four fights, the Uzbek fighter was released from the UFC.<\/p>\n<p>A few months later, Muradov signed with Oktagon, an organization he had previously competed for in his career. Undefeated since joining the promotion, Muradov earned a unanimous decision victory over Patrik Kincl to capture the middleweight interim title in his third Oktagon fight. Just over a year later, he moved up to challenge Fleury for the light heavyweight title and emerged as a two-division champion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former UFC fighter won the Oktagon middleweight interim title last year before moving up to light heavyweight&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,17574,293669,21867,638,82,640,38885],"class_list":["post-842958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-light-heavyweight","tag-makhmud-muradov","tag-middleweight","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-will-fleury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842958","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=842958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}