Muhammad Mokaev established himself as a flyweight to watch by running through a fighter set to compete at UFC Atlanta.
These days, Mokaev finds himself out of the UFC. That’s despite the Dagestan-born British fighter winning all seven of his outings inside the Octagon.
Owing to factors outside of the cage, UFC CEO Dana White opted against renewing Mokaev’s contract, a decision that left some in the MMA community bemused.
Others, though, supported the call owing to the manner of Mokaev’s final two victories, which saw him net lackluster decisions over Alex Perez and Manel Kape.
But Mokaev’s UFC record certainly has its highlights, and perhaps the best came less than one minute into his debut.
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Muhammad Mokaev needed just 58 seconds to submit Cody Durden in his UFC debut
After an undefeated amateur career, Mokaev arrived in the UFC at the London-held event in March 2022. There, ‘The Punisher’ was tasked with opening the card against Cody Durden.
The American flyweight isn’t short on self-belief and was coming off some controversy in his victory over Aoriqileng. Durden was widely criticized after stating during his Octagon interview that he had to “send him back to China, where he came from.”
With that in mind, and after some heated fight week interactions that saw Durden promise to ‘smash’ Mokaev on fight night, the debutant was keen to make his rival pay for those words.
The youngster was successful in that regard, opening his UFC account in lightning fashion by dropping Durden with a flying knee and submitting him on the ground in just 58 seconds.
During an appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani a few days later, Mokaev said he hoped Durden had been “humbled” by the experience in England’s capital.
“I realized, I’m like, ‘Hey, I just dropped him, like nearly a TKO,’ and then I thought maybe they’ll say it’s a lucky kick, punch — I’m like, let’s submit him,” Mokaev said. “So I finished him, I’ve done everything that was possible in about one minute. There’s nothing else to prove in there. And … we make him listen.
“He talked bad about this Chinese guy in UFC. I told him, ‘Listen, if you carry on, we’ll send you — I’ll send you tonight to [the U.S.] embassy and they’ll take you back to the U.S.’ But if he doesn’t carry on, he’s already [been] humbled, it’s enough. Don’t need to bring him [more], it’s maybe a bit of bullying. But let him stay there, maybe he becomes a better person.”
The pair later did away with their hostilities after training together at American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida.
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Cody Durden returns at UFC Atlanta while Muhammad Mokaev sits outside the promotion
Mokaev won his sole fight since departing UFC and is hoping to soon work his way back to MMA’s leading promotion. Durden, meanwhile, has his next Octagon assignment fast approaching.
After winning four consecutive fights following the loss against Mokaev, Durden has now lost three of his last four bouts. That includes his most recent appearance, in which the 34-year-old was outpointed by Joshua Van at UFC 310.
Durden will now be looking to return to a winning streak, starting at Saturday’s UFC Fight Night event in Atlanta.
The ATT-trained flyweight will make the walk on the prelims to face Jose Ochoa, a Peruvian prospect who lost his UFC debut against the highly touted Lone’er Kavanagh in Macau last November.