Undefeated flyweight fighter Muhammed Mokaev has pleaded with the UFC to re-sign him after Dana White unexpectedly signalled that the promotion weren’t going to renew his contract.
“My dream is to become UFC Champion,” Mokaev wrote on X just a few days after his decision victory over Manel Kape at UFC 304. “I turn them all down because UFC gave me the platform to put my name out there and earn money to feed my family! btw PFL don’t have flyweight division All these journalists that make this shit up are idiots! I hope Dana resigns me, this is my dream to become champion!”
Mokaev, who turned 24-years-old today, also issued a public apology to the UFC for sucker-punching Kape outside their fighter hotel during fight week, explaining that it was retaliation for being headbutted by his rival several months ago at the UFC’s Performance Institute in Las Vegas.
“This is first time I punched outside the cage, it was more personal,” Mokaev wrote.
“He was the one who head butted 5 days before Perez fight when I went to shake his hand in Vegas!
“I understand, this is wrong what happen at the hotel and I apologise to the UFC, but there’s some nights I didn’t sleep because someone treated me like that , I never been cheap shot on the streets
“I will never let anyone bully me and I never bullied anyone, but whatever happened it happened, I don’t wanna keep going about it but I will take big lesson from it!”
That apology may fall on deaf ears though given that at the UFC 304 post-fight presser Dana White seemed to indicate that there was more to their decision to cut ties with Mokaev than just the altercation with Kape this week.
Without going into specifics, White stated that the UFC matchmakers don’t like Mokaev and that there had been things going on “behind the scenes” for months that has now led to him being released despite now being on a seven-fight winning streak in the promotion.
One rumor that’s been going around is that the UFC brass may have been angered that Mokaev’s manager Tim Simpson was allegedly negotiating with the PFL while the fighter was still under contract with the UFC.
However, Simpson, who also oversees the careers of stars like Israel Adesanya and Leon Edwards has since spoken out to declare that unconfirmed rumor is “completely false.”
