A fight between Muhammad Mokaev and Manel Kape has been announced for UFC 304 in Manchester, England on July 27th.
The 23-year-old Mokaev is undefeated in his 12-0 (+1nc) MMA career so far, with six of those wins coming since joining the UFC in 2022.
Along the way he’s beaten the likes of Alex Perez, Tim Elliott, Malcolm Gordon and Cody Durden and finished four of his opponents in the Octagon via submission, leading him to take the No.6 spot in the flyweight rankings heading into his next fight.
As for the 30-year-old Kape, he was marked as one to watch when he joined the UFC from Rizin in 2021, but lost his first two fights. However, he’s since rebounded strongly, going on a four-fight winning streak that’s seen him beat Ode Osbourne, Zhalgas Zhumagulov, David Dvorak and most recently Felipe dos Santos to take the No.7 spot in the rankings.
Kape was originally scheduled to fight Matheus Nicolau back in January, but was pulled from the match-up after coming in 3.5lbs overweight at the weigh-ins, while a rescheduled bout in April also fell through when he withdrew for undisclosed reasons.
Mokaev vs. Kape joins a UFC 304 card that is likely to be headlined by a leading UK star like welterweight champion Leon Edwards or interim-heavyweight champ Tom Aspinall, though neither of those two fighters is officially confirmed at this stage. However, other fights so far confirmed include Arnold Allen vs. Giga Chikadze and Nathaniel Wood vs. Daniel Pineda.
