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Muhammad Mokaev picked up a unanimous decision victory over Manel Kape on the preliminary card of UFC 304.
That was Mokaev’s seventh win under the UFC banner and if UFC CEO Dana White is to be believed, Mokaev won’t be competing in the promotion going forward.
“He’s not under contract anymore,” White said at the post-fight press conference (transcript via Nolan King of MMA Junkie). “I think the PFL is going to get a great undefeated guy. The stuff that played out here of the past several months that started at the (Performance Institute) and other stories of this breaking out, plus many other things. These guys (UFC matchmakers) don’t want to re-sign him.”
Mokaev went 7-0-0 in the UFC, with those wins coming over Cody Durden, Charles Johnson, Malcolm Gordon, Jafel Filho, Tim Elliott, Alex Perez and the aforementioned Kape.
The fighter hinted after the fight that the UFC brass told him to turn down his wrestling heavy style, but White disputes that assertion.
“Yeah, that’s how what we tell guys,” White said. “We tell guys how to fight and we’ve been doing this for a long f*cking time. I’m sure one of the matchmakers probably said something to him or whatever. Yeah, the matchmakers aren’t big fans of his for many different reasons, and not just takedowns. There are a lot of people who shoot takedowns in this business, a lot of guys who fight with that type of style. But it’s a lot more than just that.”
