Following his amazing UFC debut, Mokaev shared that he had a serious obstacle to overcome ahead of his UFC debut against Cody Durden in London.
The debutant couldn’t be happier with his performance. Just as the match started, Mokaev landed a huge flying knee that sent his opponent tumbling to the floor. From there he locked in a guillotine choke and would only let go after the tap. The 58-seconds submission victory earned him one of the $50k “performance of the night” bonuses .
You can read more about his performance here.
The amazing performance was all the more surprising once we found out that Mokaev had recently broken his hand in three places.
According to the Mokaev himself, he broke his hand in three places only six weeks earlier. Mokaev showed that he is both talented and resilient refusing to back out of the challenge.
In a Twitter post, Mokaev wrote:
“6 weeks out from my fight, broke my hand in 3 places, there was no way I was gonna pull out from my debut!”
6 weeks out from my fight broke my hand in 3 places, there was no way I was gonna pull out from my debut! pic.twitter.com/alhbOTfg99
— Muhammad Mokaev (@muhammadmokaev) March 20, 2022
Fortunately for him, the hand issue wasn’t an issue during the minute long clash with Durden.
After his amazing UFC debut, Mokaev cemented himself as one of the organization’s most promising prospects. The 21-year-old is undefeated in his MMA career. Boasting a fight-finishing rate of over 70% holds a record of 7-0.
The Dagestani-born is a six-time British wrestling champion and went 26-0 as an amateur in MMA . He also became the most decorated Junior champion in IMMAF’s history.
IMMAF's most decorated Jr champion of all time, @muhammadmokaev competes this Thursday at @bravemmaf #KombatKingdom 🇧🇭
Here's how he became a two-time Jr bantamweight world champion last November… pic.twitter.com/KYCzwfZXqI
— IMMAF (@IMMAFed) September 28, 2020
Mokaev’s next move might be a big step up in competition. During an interview following his UFC win, he challenged UFC veteran Tim Elliot for a fight.
“Top 15 guys – I know there’s top 10 guys like Tim Elliott. I’d love to fight him. I know maybe people say it’s too fast – you have to go through the guys. If Cody would have beat me tonight, he’d have been top 15. … So why not put me in the top 15? I’ll fight anyone in the top 15 and I’ll be fast-tracked to the title. He’s been around this game for a long time.”
If the bout is agreed upon, Mokaev might become flyweight title contender in the near future.