Muhammad Mokaev was not happy about the way he was released from UFC.
In 2024, Mokaev was riding an impressive 13 - 0 winning streak following his bout against Manuel Kape at UFC 304. Mokaev was easily climbing the ranks of UFC’s Flyweight division, but to the shock of most people, UFC opted to not re-sign the young prospect.
Dana White has already explained why he chose not to sign what many saw as a future world champion. Apparently, Mokaev was a troublemaker behind the scenes. In fact, White stated that he had so many issues that the match makers were done with him.
It’s been nearly a year since Muhammad’s release and he’s currently back in Brave Combat Federation. Mokaev remains undefeated and he’s grateful for having a place in Brave CF, but he talked to MMA Fighting about being pissed over the UFC trying to ruin his reputation.
“You know what got me upset, if you do something wrong, you don’t get upset,” Mokaev explained. “You get what you deserve. But when you don’t do something, what you’ve done, what you’ve been shown in media as a bad guy, that was what got me upset. I don’t care about this contract, or about anything. But something that’s not true cannot come out like this and ruin somebody’s reputation.
“If I’m a bad guy, I’m a hard guy to deal with, you don’t keep that guy for seven fights in your organization. You kick him out straight away. I’ve been renewed with a UFC contract twice while I was there with a better purse, of course. If I’m a bad guy, straight away you kick him out. That’s how it works.”
PFL didn’t want Mokaev, which was a damaging thing that further harmed his image. Muhammad highlights him not being a bad person thanks to Brave giving him another shot and the company has praised his professionalism.
“If I’m a bad guy, BRAVE would never bring me back to the organization, especially like when PFL said ‘we don’t want him’ and then BRAVE also could say ‘we don’t want him,’” Mokaev said. “For example, PFL said we don’t want him but at the same time it wasn’t true.
“I’ve got messages from PFL, too. They actually offered me to fight Patchy Mix for the belt. They offered me to step into the Grand Prix on short notice, 10 days, I accepted but I couldn’t get a working visa on the right time. That’s what got me upset. I haven’t done something that should put me in the media as a bad guy.”
Despite Dana White putting negativity around his name, Muhammad’s dream is still to fight within the UFC.
“I’m fighting back for my dream,” Mokaev said. “That’s why a lot of people [are saying] ‘we need to get you back, we need to get you the belt.’ That’s why I’m still going with my career. Financially, today I can finish my career and chill with my family and travel around the world. Only reason because I have people’s back, people support [me] and the real people who know me from outside of fighting, they’ve still got my back. My reputation has never been ruined by the people who actually knew me, knew me before UFC and after UFC. UFC helped me to build my brand, helped me to get on my feet. I didn’t have a house, I was renting a house. Now I have everything.
“Because of one thing they said in the media doesn’t mean they’re bad people. They give me a seven-fight platform to fight on the biggest cards in the world. They paid me. There was no problem between me and them personally. I’ll still be thankful, it doesn’t matter if they [re-sign] me or not. They put me on the map and now BRAVE is continuing to build me as a brand and saving the division.”
Will he make his return to the UFC? Only time will tell. Mokaev is only 25, so it’s not impossible for him to make his return to the promotion.