Muhammad Mokaev will return to the octagon next month at UFC 280 as he looks to pick up his third consecutive win in the promotion.
Mokaev, 22, was hoping to meet a ranked opponent but has been matched up against unranked Malcolm Gordon in Abu Dhabi on October 22. After losing his first two UFC fights, Gordon has rebounded by winning consecutive fights against Francisco Figueiredo and Denys Bondar. The Canadian is a big underdog heading into his fight with Mokaev, who is unbeaten in his amateur and professional career.
After becoming a four-time IMMAF champion, Mokaev was signed to the UFC last November and made his debut in March against Cody Durden at UFC London. 'The Punisher' banked himself a $50,000 performance bonus by submitting Durden in under a minute after dropping him with a flying knee. Mokaev fought again in the English capital four months later by outpointing Charles Johnson whilst setting a record for the most takedowns in a UFC flyweight fight.
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Mokaev claimed that several ranked flyweights turned down fights against him following his latest win, telling Mirror Fighting : "Jeff Molina doesn't want to fight in Abu Dhabi and doesn't want to face me anyway. [David] Dvorak didn't accept and Tim Elliott is injured. Sumudaerji is also injured and I sent [Brandon] Royval a message but he didn't respond. I was getting a bit angry about this and I said just give me whoever because I want to stay busy and fight."
Eager to break former pound-for-pound No.1 Jon Jones' record for being the youngest champion in UFC history, Mokaev predicts he will fight for the flyweight title by the end of 2023. The Brit thinks No.4 ranked flyweight Askar Askarov will have the belt by then, but explained why he would prefer not to fight him.
"I think Askar Askarov will be champion, personally I don't want to fight him being in 2015 this guy messaged me helping with my weight cut," he added. "I have a lot of respect for this guy, if he doesn't want to fight me that would be ok but if he does, I'm not backing anything down."
UFC 280 takes place at the Etihad Arena and is headlined. by a vacant lightweight title fight between former champion Charles Oliveira and top contender Islam Makhachev. Oliveira was stripped of his belt in May after missing weight for his title defence against Justin Gaethje, of which he won by first-round submission. In the co-main event of UFC 280, bantamweight champion Aljamain Stering defends his belt against TJ Dillashaw.
