Ex-UFC flyweight Muhammad Mokaev's Karate Combat debut date and opponent set
Muhammad Mokaev has indicated a move toward Karate Combat within the last few days and now, the opponent for his debut has been locked in. As per MMA Fighting's report, the former UFC flyweight will throw down under a different martial arts ruleset on May 2. Bolat Zamanbekov will step into the pit with Mokaev in Dubai for the card's co-headlining attraction.
The main event for Karate Combat 54 has a mapped-out headliner featuring KC heavyweight champion Sam Alvey defending his strap against decorated kickboxer Tyrone Spong. The Mokaev vs. Zamanbekov clash is contracted as a bantamweight bout and will take place under the three, three-minute round increments that the promotion uses for their contests.
Mokaev enters the Karate Combat pit here after a competitively successful yet tumultuous run in the UFC as well as a return to the Brave CF cage. The decorated mixed martial artist went 7-0 in the octagon with wins over the likes of Alex Perez, Tim Elliott, and Manel Kape before leaving the UFC in July of last year.
He returned to Brave CF in December as Muhammad Mokaev bested Joevincent So to maintain his spotless professional MMA record.
Check out Muhammad Mokaev's thoughts on returning to his first martial art below:
Muhammad Mokaev and the tale of his UFC exit per Dana White
Muhammad Mokaev is considered a polarizing figure in the world of MMA as indicated by his departure from the Ultimate Fighting Championship. It's not often that an unbeaten, streaking competitor beating ranked contenders in their weight category doesn't get re-signed but that is precisely what happened to Mokaev.
Dana White addressed why the 24-year-old was not welcomed back into the octagon and touched on this at a post-event press conference for Dana White's Contender Series last Aug 13. On-site media member John Morgan referenced an interview that Mokaev did shortly after the last octagon outing, as of this writing, at UFC 304 against the aforementioned Manel Kape.
Mokaev had stated in that interview with MMA Junkie that he would be willing to fight for free to endear himself to the promotion. In response to Morgan referencing those comments from the British/ Russian combatant to Dana White, White quipped (via Forbes):
"Nobody is fighting for free... I wasn't involved in any of the stuff that happened with him. The matchmakers and Hunter [Campbell] were and they weren't happy with him."
"They weren't happy with the way he acted. They weren't happy with a lot of the things he did and said. I guess you can look back now and regret it, but you did it. You did it, and you put yourself in this position."