With a career record of 13 victories and 0 losses, one would suppose that Muhammad Mokaev would be one of the biggest stars coming out of Britain. However, the promotion, as well as Dana White, had some other plans for the fighter.
Despite winning his fight against Manel Kape at the UFC 304, the promotion has decided to let go of him. Dana White even took a step further to add a PFL jibe to his departure “He’s not under contract anymore. I think the PFL is going to get a great, undefeated guy. Good luck to him.”
Combat fans believe that the UFC is treating the young talent pretty harshly, however, according to certain insiders, the British-Dagestani fighter had a pretty bad relationship with the top brass of the promotion. Certain leaks even suggested that Dana White made his decision way before Mokaev’s last fight against Manel Kape.
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The reason behind Dana White’s PFL jibe after Muhammad Mokaev’s release
Following the sports closely will let one know that Dana White despises his competition. The UFC head honcho doesn’t even see PFL-Bellator as a potential contender to their throne but it must be noted that the gap is closing. Interestingly, PFL’Bellator clashed with UFC 300, and at that time Dana White made a pretty harsh statement against the newly introduced PFL-Bellator, “You know PFLator [PFL-Bellator] was here [in Las Vegas] on Friday…I didn’t know until fu**ing Friday,” said Dana White. N͏o͏w co͏m͏es th͏e͏ ͏Mokaev par͏t. ͏͏It͏ w͏a͏s qui͏t͏e a͏ surp͏͏r͏ise f͏o͏r͏͏ ͏Da͏na͏ Wh͏it͏e ͏to a͏nnounce ͏͏that͏ one o͏͏f his͏͏ big͏gest fights ͏wou͏ld b͏e ͏g͏͏i͏ven to P͏FL͏͏. So, why did the UFC ͏su͏premo͏ say that?͏
The MMA community might have criticized the promotion for its harsh treatment of the undefeated fighter but according to a leaker, the reason why Dana White used the PFL jibe is that Muhammad Mokaev was planning to jump ships for better opportunities, “Mokaev and his mgmt team tried to check on what PFL would pay well before this last fight on the deal. UFC got the wind of this and considered that the last straw of why they weren’t going to re-sign,” the conversation is from a leaked chat.
So is Dana White’s stance correct in this fiasco? Well, it’s all about perspective. Why? Dana White knew that Mokaev was looking for different options despite being under a UFC contract and this might have irked the promotion but one might understand when an employee looks for better options, it’s because he is not paid well. Even the fighter has confessed in one of his social media posts that he is being paid only $16000 for his fights and out of that he only gets around $5ooo for himself as the other amount goes for his camp and nutrition.
“I’m willing to give Alex Perez $10,000 if he accepts this fight and turns up to the event! Unfortunately, my payment [is] not as high, I’m on $16,000 at the moment but I’m here to make a history!” wrote Mokaev in one of his tweets back in 2022. Interestingly, the promotion did not waste a single second and released the fighter right away after his win against Manel Kape. So, what next for the flyweight star? Let’s find out.
What’s next for Muhammad Mokaev?
The promotion issued a circular just a day after the fight calling out all the representatives to remove Muhammad Mokaev’s name from the flyweight division rankings. This was a bit new from the promotion as they seldom issue such whips. As soon as the whip was issued, Mokaev was officially removed from the UFC and is now a free agent. So, what’s next for the fighter? Well, unlike any other fighters who give up after being released from UFC, Mokaev is young and talented.
The British-Dagestani fighter has been on a winning streak since he started his MMA career. He was undefeated in his amateur as well as professional career and he is too big of a talent for the other promotions to ignore. As stated by Dana White, Mokaev might venture around the renewed PFL-Bellator or ONE Championship for a fight opportunity.
Interestingly, both of the promotions are looking to shake UFC’s throne but they are very far from it as of now but inching closer to it as the days go by.