Muhammad Mokaev never lost inside the Octagon. Seven fights, seven wins, capped by a unanimous decision over Manel Kape in July 2024 that also happened to be the last fight on his UFC contract. That same night, Dana White made it clear the promotion wouldn't be re-signing the then-24-year-old contender. Two years later, according to what Mokaev told BBC Sport, the offer that finally came back around wasn't a fight at all.
It was a grappling match. Against UFC BJJ bantamweight champion Mikey Musumeci, for $10,000, with the promotion telling him plainly it wouldn't lead to a new MMA deal.
Mokaev called the offer "deeply insulting." He says he still would've taken it if it opened a door back to the cage. When it was made clear it wouldn't, he "told them where to go." By his account, the UFC's line was, "no, this is different... BJJ is different. This is different. We have other plans," and his reply, he admitted, carried a few expletives. A fighter still trying to earn his way in, offered a sideshow the promotion had already decided led nowhere.
Why the UFC cut Mokaev in the first place is genuinely disputed. White's public explanation was stylistic, the matchmakers weren't fans of how Mokaev fights. There's also separate reporting tying his release to backstage friction, including alleged clashes with Kape around UFC 304 fight week, with White at one point calling him "unwelcome" over his conduct toward UFC staff. Mokaev has denied those claims. I'm not here to litigate that. I don't have to.
The offer stands on its own. You can believe every word of the behavioral allegations and it still doesn't explain floating an undefeated released fighter a $10,000 grappling curiosity with a no-contract sticker on it. To me, it looks like a way to keep a name attached to the brand without ever committing to him as a fighter.
What makes the grievance sting is the promise he says was broken. "Hunter made me a promise. They basically wasted two years of my life," Mokaev told the BBC, pointing at UFC Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell. "That's how I feel right now. I don't think what they are doing is right." In the meantime he's stayed busy and stayed unbeaten, picking up titles in BRAVE CF and ACBJJ, and even taking a Karate Combat knockout win back in May 2025. As of this fight week his team describes him as unbeaten across 40 amateur and pro bouts, a number that keeps climbing because nobody in the UFC will book him.
He isn't the only recent case worth watching. Michael "Venom" Page went 5-1 in the UFC, his only loss to Ian Machado Garry, and after finishing his contract with a win over Nursulton Ruziboev at UFC Paris in early September, White confirmed the promotion doesn't expect to re-sign him. Page even said he'd braced for a pay cut, not a goodbye: "What I felt would happen was they'd be like, 'Look, we can re-sign but it will be a lot less [money],' and we work from there." Different circumstances, no novelty grappling bout involved, but the same underlying message to a winning fighter.
All of this lands as the flyweight division moves on without Mokaev. Joshua Van defends the belt against Alexandre Pantoja on September 19 in Los Angeles, a rematch of a fight Van won when Pantoja hurt his elbow inside the opening seconds. That's the ladder Mokaev keeps saying he wants to climb. The UFC's counteroffer was a mat and ten grand. He turned it down, and I don't blame him.
