Muhammad Mokaev is one of the most highly touted prospects and he’s already on the UFC’s radar.
The Dagestan-born, British-based Mokaev (4-0) is a two-time IMMAF junior world champion and a two-time European champion, dominating the amateur scene with a perfect 23-0 record.
He carried that momentum into his pro career, where he is already 4-0, 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 he turned it down.
He explains why.
“There’s UFC London in August, but I’ve been offered Contender Series before the fight with Abdul Hussein, but I’m one of the fighters that wants to go straight to the UFC,” Mokaev told MMA Junkie. “I don’t want Contenders. I believe I sell more pay-per-views or maybe most views, most hyped-up fight for the UFC in the U.K.”
“I don’t know who’s gonna be on that card, but I believe I beat all the records for that, and if the tickets are on sale, I’ll sell all the tickets in the arena,” Mokaev continued. “I believe this one-hundred percent. I don’t need to go through the Contender Series to let people know about me. I deserve straight road to the UFC.”
Considering the hype surrounding him, Mokaev says that an entry to the UFC through the Contender Series would be rather anticlimactic.
“Contender Series it’s like another show,” Mokaev said. “It’s not even UFC. It’s like me fighting in the U.K. to make some nice performance and Dana White sees it and he picks me from the organization. I don’t want to go through Contenders, it looks like I’m not a built-up fighter yet. Maybe I don’t have as much exposed media as other guys. I know the guys who fight on the Contender Series, they’re not as big of a name as me, I believe.”
Mokaev returns on June 4, when he takes on Ibragim Navruzov (5-1-1) in a catchweight bout at BRAVE CF 51 in Belarus. Navruzov brings solid experience having competed in high-level organizations and Mokaev knows exactly what kind of fight he’s in for.
“He’s a good opponent,” Mokaev said. “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 that trains on that side I mean. Just box to grab your leg. He’s just gonna shoot for my legs, that’s for sure. That was me four, five years ago so I know what’s the game plan. That’s old me so I know how to beat my old self.”
When Mokaev turned pro, he had a very difficult time finding opponents. His dominance on the amateur scene resulted in very few people accepting to fight him, but now he’s ready to take on stiffer competition. He’s coming off a win over fellow former amateur champion Hussein and says he was trying to get matched up with fighters that have three times his pro experience, before ending up with Navruzov.
Mokaev is not interested in padding his record and wants to make sure he has the right kind of experience before making the leap to the UFC, where he has aspirations of becoming the youngest champion in history.
“To be honest, I asked Brave to fight two guys from Kazakhstan,” Mokaev said. “One of them actually fought on Fight Nights in Russia, he’s not bad. One of them 12-1 and another guy is 13-0 and none of them were ready to fight on that date. I’m not sure if they’re not ready for the date or ready to fight me, but of course when you have such a big record like 13-0 and 12-0, nobody wants to fight at that stage.”
“They just want to jump in 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,” Mokaev explained. “Of course now I’m at that stage where I can’t fight someone below me. That would be worse than actually not fighting. I’d rather not fight than fight someone ranked below me.”
