{"id":40567,"date":"2026-09-17T03:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T03:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Muhammad-Mokaev-reveals-why-he-turned-down-recent-UFC-title-opportunity-202831"},"modified":"2026-09-17T03:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T03:09:12","slug":"muhammad-mokaev-reveals-why-he-turned-down-recent-ufc-title-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/muhammad-mokaev-reveals-why-he-turned-down-recent-ufc-title-opportunity\/","title":{"rendered":"Muhammad Mokaev reveals why he turned down recent UFC title opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Muhammad
\nMokaev<\/a> was offered an opportunity to compete under the
\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a> banner again, but declined.<\/p>\n

Mokaev, who controversially exited the UFC in 2024, has revealed
\nthat he was offered a UFC BJJ title match against Mikey
\nMusumeci<\/a>. He recently detailed turning down the matchup as he
\ncontinues to campaign for a return to the promotion\u2019s flyweight
\nmixed martial arts division.<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Muhammad Mokaev says UFC BJJ title fight against Mikey Musumeci
\ncame without MMA return<\/h2>\n

Speaking to BBC Sport<\/a>, Mokaev said that the issue wasn\u2019t
\nwith the opponent he was offered. Instead, he objected to the UFC’s
\nreluctance to link the grappling appearance to a full return to the
\nroster.<\/p>\n

According to Mokaev, he was offered $10,000 to compete against
\nMusumeci in UFC BJJ and was prepared to accept the matchup if it
\ncame with a UFC contract afterward. When the promotion indicated
\nthat the grappling appearance was separate from its MMA plans, \u201cThe
\nPunisher\u201d declined.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said, \u2018No, this is different. BJJ is different. This is
\ndifferent. We have other plans.\u2019 I told them where to go,\u201d Mokaev
\nsaid.<\/p>\n

The UFC opted against re-signing Mokaev (17-0) after his lackluster
\nwin over top-ranked 125-pounder Manel Kape<\/a>.
\nDespite boasting a perfect record, the Dagestan-born Brit\u2019s
\npre-fight antics seemingly turned top promotional execs against
\nhim. He has since picked up four more wins, while staying active in
\ngrappling and wrestling matches. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Muhammad Mokaev was offered an opportunity to compete under the Ultimate Fighting Championship banner again, but declined. Mokaev, who controversially exited the UFC in 2024, has revealed that he was offered a UFC BJJ title match against Mikey Musumeci. He recently detailed turning down the matchup as he continues to campaign for a return to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}