Muhammad Mokaev has moved on with his career after a contentious exit from the UFC when the promotion opted not to re-sign him despite an undefeated record and a top 10 ranking in the flyweight division.
The split happened after Mokaev beat Manel Kape but then UFC CEO Dana White announced that the promotion wouldn’t bring him back on a new deal while claiming that the “matchmakers aren’t big fans of his.” White added that it wasn’t once incident involving Mokaev but plenty of “bad shit” that resulted in the promotion opting not to offer him a new contract.
Now competing for BRAVE CF with a flyweight title fight booked on Nov. 7, Mokaev isn’t necessarily holding onto any animosity, but he never appreciated that his reputation took such a hit from the way he left the UFC.
“You know what got me upset, if you do something wrong, you don’t get upset,” Mokaev explained when speaking to MMA Fighting. “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.”
BRAVE officials have praised Mokaev as a total professional when it comes to his behavior in the organization, which is one of the reasons why he was brought back so quickly after his UFC deal ended.
Mokaev believes that says a lot about him personally but he knows that BRAVE wasn’t the only organization seeking his services after he left the UFC. Despite claims that there was no interest, Mokaev revealed that PFL absolutely reached out, and offered him a fight, but the logistics didn’t work out for him to sign there.
“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.”
Since his run with the UFC ended, Mokaev rarely goes a day without somebody tagging him on social media about potentially returning to his old stomping grounds.
With current UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja largely running roughshod over the competition, an undefeated contender like Mokaev seems like the perfect foil to bring back at some point.
Whether that happens or not remains to be seen but the 25-year-old fighter appreciates that so many people are still supporting him no matter what happened in the UFC. Mokaev is also quick to point out that despite what’s been said about him publicly, he’s not holding onto any rage or anger towards 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 building me as a brand and saving the division.”
In a weird twist, Mokaev recognizes that the way he left the UFC might have actually made him an even bigger star in the sport so a potential return would certainly grab a lot of headlines.
He’s not losing sleep if that doesn’t happen, but Mokaev promises he’s not in the business of burning bridges, which is how he returned to BRAVE and how he’s keeping the door open to a potential UFC reunion as well.
“I think the UFC releasing me made my name even bigger,” Mokaev said. “[Anyone] who didn’t know me, they found out about I’m 7-0, got cut the first time in history and it made me even bigger.
“If I come back, I think all eyes are going to be on the flyweight division. BRAVE champion versus UFC champion.”
As much as the UFC conversation still happens, Mokaev makes it clear that he’s very happy competing in BRAVE and he doesn’t expect that to change any time soon. Mokaev knows the promotion respects and appreciates him plus the financial benefits have definitely been nice.
“It’s unfinished business [in UFC],” Mokaev said. “I imagine the belt around my waist and that’s how I feel in my mind. [But] I know I’m the highest-paid flyweight in the world right now. That’s how BRAVE treats me.
“I can go to their office any time, talk to the president Mohammed Shahid. We talk about more about business than actually fighting. We sit down in the office for two or three hours sometimes, it’s 20 minutes away from my apartment here in Bahrain. They will support me in anything I do in my life. I don’t want to look past my next fight, too.”
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