Muhammad Mokaev and Manel Kape had a physical altercation at the UFC fighter hotel on Thursday, were immediately separated at Friday’s ceremonial weigh-ins and had to be restrained by a surplus of security in the cage pre-fight on Saturday ahead of their preliminary bout at UFC 304.
It was ironic then that when their sanctioned fight began with both flyweight contenders extremely tentative and not looking like two fighters between whom there were high levels of tension and personal animosity.
Mokaev ended up winning a lacklustre unanimous decision to remain undefeated in mixed martial arts. His performance wasn’t one strong enough to warrant the next title shot even though his record, ranking and the current state of the division could’ve theoretically put him on the doorstep of the 125-pound title picture. The belt is currently held by Alexandre Pantoja.
Kape had his moments throughout the three rounds as the more accurate striker but the constant threat of a takedown from Mokaev, plus a toe injury sustained, had a clear impact on Kape whose four-fight winning streak was snapped.
The second round took a couple of bizarre turns when Kape broke a toe on his right foot while throwing a combination and had to adjust how much weight he was putting on that side of his body for the remainder of the bout. Mokaev took Kape down midway through the second but he blatantly grabbed Kape’s short, which is a rules violation, and the position was taken away by referee Mike Beltran who issued Mokaev a warning.
The final round was relatively tame with Mokaev landing a takedown that allowed him to maintain top position and ride out the clock. Both fighters appeared to bury the hatchet once the final horn had sounded in a brief moment of sportsmanship.
Mokaev called for a title shot and a new contract following his victory. The 23-year-old is now 7-0 in the UFC with his two victories this calendar year coming by way of unanimous decision.
Also on the preliminary card, Bruna Brasil pulled off an upset against one of England’s most popular fighters. Brasil won a unanimous decision as a heavy underdog over Molly McCann in strawweight action.
Brasil hurt her opponent with repeated knees and kicks to the midsection of the shorter McCann who stood southpaw leaving her left side exposed. Brasil was a perfect three for three on takedowns and defended five of seven takedown attempts from McCann, helping her get the judges’ decision.
UFC 304 took place at the Co-op Live in Manchester, England. The card was headlined by a welterweight championship fight between Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad and an interim heavyweight title bout featuring Tom Aspinall and Curtis Blaydes.
Seven U.K.-based fighters ended up victorious on the preliminary card.
Jake Hadley picked up a nice win over a fellow former Cage Warriors champion. The flyweight took a short-notice bantamweight bout against Caolan Loughran and ended up winning a unanimous decision. Ironically it was the smaller man who missed weight by one pound on Friday so he forfeited 20 per cent of his purse.
Mick Parkin got the English fighters on the board with his first stoppage victory in the UFC. The heavyweight moved to 10-0 in pro MMA and 4-0 in the UFC with a first-round knockout of Lukasz Brzeski.
The very next fight Sam Patterson made it back-to-back first-round stoppages for home fighters as the lanky and improving Brit moved to 2-0 in 2024 since moving up to the welterweight division. Patterson picked up a rear-naked choke submission win in Toronto in January at UFC 297 and locked up a nice arm-triangle choke on Kiefer Crosbie that resulted in a tap following a nifty adjustment.
Nathaniel Wood, another former Cage Warrior champ, won his second consecutive bout at 145 pounds by getting the nod on the scorecards in the featured prelim versus Daniel Pineda.