Muhammad Mokaev is no closer to re-signing with the UFC than he was the day he was released from the promotion following the final fight on his contract.
That’s despite numerous conversations with UFC brass that all Mokaev had to do was this and that and he’d be back in. The result? Mokaev has competed 8 times since leaving UFC in 2024. He has one submission win and three knockout wins. He won the BRAVE FC belt. Yet none of it has been enough for the UFC to bring him back, and he’s starting to get
upset.
“Hunter made me a promise,” Mokaev said in a new interview with BBC. “They basically wasted two years of my life. That’s how I feel right now. I don’t think what they are doing is right.”
Mokaev started his run in the UFC with a lot of hype but put on increasingly cautious and dull performances as he climbed his way up the flyweight ladder. His final fight against Manel Kape — which was preluded by multiplestreet brawls — was the worst fight of them all, a total nothingburger that sealed Mokaev’s fate.
According to Mokaev, UFC matchmakers told him “He needs to stop wrestling – we don’t want these decision guys” after his second fight. The next three fights, Mokaev submitted his opponents. The last two fights on his contract? Terrible. Terrible!
The final nail in the coffin for Mokaev was reports that he was negotiating with PFL before his UFC contract was up. At that point, UFC CEO Dana White publicly said the PFL could have him.
According to Mokaev, there was a recent offer from UFC to rekindle the relationship under the UFC BJJ banner. He says they offered him $10,000 to face BJJ champion Mikey Musumeci. What didn’t come with that offer was an agreement to let him back into the UFC.
“They said, ‘No, this is different. BJJ is different. This is different. We have other plans.’ I told them where to go,” Mokaev said.
BBC noted that Mokaev’s response to the UFC “contained several expletives,” which doesn’t seem like the best way to earn your way back in the promotion. We don’t blame Mokaev. As the best title prospect to get cut from the UFC, he’s been treated poorly. But if your number one goal is to get back into the UFC, we don’t know if this is the way to do it.
