Former UFC flyweight Muhammad Mokaev finished up a wild UFC 304 fight week with a victory, but an unexpected ending.
Following UFC 304 CEO Dana White told the media that Mokaev, 23, would not be re-signed to the promotion following the completion of his contract. The victory over Kape marked the last fight on Mokaev’s contract with the young flyweight hoping for a new one.
White squashed that at his post-fight scrum.
Dana White says the UFC is not interested in re-signing Muhammad Mokaev following #UFC304
🎥: @Patrick_McCorry pic.twitter.com/hSDhVlbl6h
— Cageside Press (@Cagesidepress) July 28, 2024
Mokaev had an eventful fight week with multiple altercations with Kape. First at the fighter hotel the two, and their teams, attempted to get at each other.
Team Mokaev & Team Kape got into an altercation at the fighters hotel, possibly due to the earlier rumours of a bloody altercation at the UFC PI🫣 (via @RedCorner_MMA) pic.twitter.com/zA6T0sLgpB
— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) July 25, 2024
Then Mokaev asked Kape for a photo to squash the beef. That turned into Mokaev landing a sucker punch on Kape. Finally at ceremonial weigh-ins the two went at each other to the point that they couldn’t do a face-off and even tried to continue in the back.
Once the fight finally came they had to be held back by security while Bruce Buffer announced the fighters.
Following the bout, which Mokaev took by decision, he told the media he was hoping to return to the UFC.
Muhammad Mokaev hopes the UFC brings him back. #UFC304
Note: This was prior to UFC CEO Dana White’s post-fight scrum.
🎥: @Patrick_McCorry pic.twitter.com/2Xsnu0Bak1
— Cageside Press (@Cagesidepress) July 28, 2024
Following reports that the UFC had opted to not re-sign Mokaev due to the flyweight’s team reaching out to other promotions before his UFC contract was up, White made his announcement at the post-fight presser.
Just a couple days later Mokaev spoke out to squash rumors.
Muhammad Mokaev took to social media to state his case in hopes the UFC will bring him back. #UFC304 pic.twitter.com/c4uYZ6ns5p
— Cageside Press (@Cagesidepress) July 30, 2024
“My dream is to become UFC Champion.
I turn them all down because UFC gave me the platform to put my name out there and earn money to feed my family! btw PFL don’t have flyweight division
All these journalists that make sh*t up are idiots! I hope Dana resigns me, this is my dream to become champion!”, Mokaev wrote in one post.
He continued giving some detail as to how the feud go so bad.
“This is the first time I punched outside the cage, it was more personal
He was the one who head butted 5 days before Perez fight when I went to shake his hand in Vegas! I understand, this is wrong what happen at the hotel and I apologise to the UFC, but there’s some nights I didn’t sleep because someone treated me like that, I never been cheap shot on the streets
I will never let anyone bully me and I never bullied anyone, but whatever happened it happened, I don’t wanna keep going about it but I will take big lesson from it!”
His manager, Tim Simpson, told Damon Martin that rumors of Mokaev’s UFC exit being linked to negotiations with PFL while still under contract were “completely false”.
The UFC has yet to provide an official statement on the matter.
