It hasn’t been an easy year for Muhammad Mokaev.
At the tail end of 2024, he was riding high following his impressive win over Manuel Kape at UFC 304. Mokaev was undefeated and was slowly climbing the ranks of UFC’s Flyweight division. Then, out of the blue, it was announced that UFC opted to not re-sign the young prospect. It was a genuine shock as many had him pegged as a future UFC Champion.
Now Mokaev was somewhat of a controversial figure. In fact, Dana White pretty much explained at a press conference that the matches were tired of him.
“So, first of all, he was not released he just was not re-signed. His contract expired and there were a lot of issues with him behind the scenes. And not some behind-the-scenes. The matchmakers were done with him, they were tired of him they did not want to deal with him anymore so they didn’t re-sign him.”
Since his release, Mokaev has been fighting for various promotions. The 25-year-old sat down on the MightyCast, and revisited the possible reason he was fired and the former UFC star felt that his bout against Manuel Kape depended all on performance.
“First of all, I was fighting on the last fight deal contract against Manel, so it all depended on my performance,” Mokaev said. “So 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’s 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’re 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’t 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’s it.
“I was just there, maybe win by decision, I didn’t care, but only guy who was in my head was Pantoja, that’s 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’t finish him and basically they didn’t re-sign me.”
Now Mokaev doesn’t address Dana White’s comments about the bookers being tired of him. He feels that it’s ultimately about his performance, though he does acknowledge that his behavior outside of the octagon did help with his chances of being re-signed.
“I’ve 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,” Mokaev said. “I’ve been told that. It wasn’t something [with] the trouble I did outside the hotel. It didn’t help, but it wasn’t the main reason.
“It was all about the performance and I don’t think it’s 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.”