Former UFC flyweight contender Muhammad Mokaev is still toiling away outside the promotion, hoping to get a chance to make it back to the big league and eventually become champion. But if none of that comes together, he said in a new interview that he’ll still be fine.
“I just wanna compete and stay away from distraction, stay focused,” Mokaev told Home of Fight. “Because if I don’t compete, I don’t see myself motivated to even train.”
“At this stage of my life, I can finish my career. Financially, I can finish my career today and just sit and chill and do nothing because I invested everything. I did everything smart. That’s why I’m not really worried about my career because whatever I earned in UFC, I understood this money. It’s not forever.”
“I don’t need to fight anymore, if we talk about financial,” he added. “But my situation, I need to fight to train more. What else I can do? Okay, I wake up in the morning. If I don’t have training, what else will I do? I don’t know.”
Mokaev has kept himself busy in the year since the UFC very publicly refused to re-sign him, saying he was too difficult to work with. After losing a split decision grappling match he went on to earn a first round submission win in BRAVE CF, and then landed a slick KO win in Karate Combat. More finishes will lead him back to the UFC, he suspects, but he’s not going to push it by bugging UFC CEO Dana White.
Mokaev said he’s only talked to White twice in his life, both before he was let go by the UFC.
“That’s it. Since then, I never talked to Dana,” the young contender said. “I never met him, and I understand he doesn’t get involved in flyweight division. So that’s it. I saw him at PowerSlap [in Saudi Arabia], but I never went to him. I don’t think it’d be good for me … talking publicly. I didn’t go to him because I don’t want to make him uncomfortable and make it look like unprofessional. That’s it. I just leave it. They know I’m ready, and that’s it. I don’t need to push them if anymore.”
“Like Dana said in interview, he wasn’t involved,” Mokaev added. “It’s all matchmakers. I was fighting on the last fight of my deal. So I don’t think the problem in hotel was the main issue. It didn’t help. But it wasn’t made the issue to not continue my contract. But whatever happened, it’s their decision. At the end of the day, it’s their organization. If they don’t want me, why keep asking? You don’t wanna be there where the people don’t wanna see you.”
Leading up to his final fight with Manel Kape, Mokaev admitted to setting up a meeting to squash their beef and then jumping “Starboy.” Despite all their conflicts outside the cage, their fight was an absolute dud. The stream of play-it-safe decisions probably had as much to do with the cut as the many headaches Mokaev was causing at events.
“But at same time, I’m in touch with them,” Mokaev insisted. “I’m not banned like Paul Daley or something from UFC. Same time, I just need to improve my striking and keep showing up on on the media. If fans want to see me back, they will sign me back.”
“I think I’m still young, and I still can come back. And yes, I did make some mistakes. This s— in hotel, I did, it happened. I don’t think I need to talk about this anymore.”
