Muhammad Mokaev is one of the most highly touted prospects and is already on the UFC’s radar. Mokaev (4-0), born in Dagestan and based in Great Britain, is a two-time IMMAF world youth champion and two-time European champion, dominating the amateur scene with a perfect 23-0 record.
He carried that momentum into his professional career, where he already has a 4-0 mark, having competed four times in the span of three months in 2020. With his undeniable success, Mokaev revealed that he was offered a spot on Dana White’s Contender Series prior to his win over Abdul Hussein at BRAVE CF 49 in March, but turned it down.
Mokaev explains why
“There’s UFC London in August, but I was offered the Contender Series before the Abdul Hussein fight, but I’m one of the fighters who wants to go straight to the UFC. I don’t want contenders. I think I sell the most pay-per-view or maybe the most views, the most hyped fight for the UFC in the UK.”
“I don’t know who will be on that bill, but I think I broke all the records for that, and if tickets are on sale, I’ll sell out every ticket in the arena. I believe this one hundred percent. I don’t need to go through the Contender Series for people to know about me. I deserve a direct path to UFC.”
Considering the hype surrounding it, Mokaev says an entry into the UFC via Contender Series would be quite disappointing.
“Contender Series is like another show. It’s not even UFC. It’s like I’m fighting in the UK to put on a good performance and Dana White sees it and picks me out of the organization. I don’t want to go through Contenders, it seems like I’m not a built fighter yet. Maybe I don’t have as much exposed media as other guys. I know the guys who fight in the Contender Series, I don’t think they have as big a name as I do.”
Mokaev returns on June 4, when he takes on Ibragim Navruzov (5-1-1) in a middleweight bout at BRAVE CF 51 in Belarus. Navruzov brings solid experience having competed in top-level organizations and Mokaev knows exactly what kind of fight he is in for.
“He is a good opponent. He had three fights in ACA, one draw in M1 and three fights in Fight Nights Global in Russia, so good organizations. I think he’s a typical Russian fighter who trains on that side, I mean. Just box to grab your leg. He’s going to shoot my legs, that’s for sure. That was me four or five years ago, so I know what the game plan is. That’s me, so I know how to beat the old me.”
When Mokaev turned pro, he had a hard time finding opponents. His dominance in the amateur scene resulted in very few people agreeing to fight him, but now he is ready to face tougher competition.
Mokaev isn’t interested in improving his record and wants to make sure he gets the right kind of experience before making the jump to UFC, where he has aspirations of becoming the youngest champion in history.
“To be honest, I asked Brave to fight two guys from Kazakhstan. One of them fought at Fight Nights in Russia, not bad. One of them 12-1 and one of them 13-0 and neither of them were ready to fight on that date. I’m not sure if they’re not ready for the date or to fight me, but of course, when you have a record as big as 13-0 and 12-0, nobody wants to fight at that stage.”
“They just want to jump into the UFC and then they get exposed, so I don’t want to be one of the guys like Ben Askren and that’s why I want challenges now. Of course I’m at that stage now where I can’t fight someone below me. That would be worse than not fighting. I’d rather not fight than fight someone ranked below me.”
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