“I think the PFL is gonna get a great undefeated guy,” were the words that sealed the fate of Muhammad Mokaev back in July. The fighter was undefeated in the UFC with a 7-0 record at 23 years old. However, despite this, he was removed from the organization. During the post-UFC 304 press conference in Manchester, Dana White firmly said that the flyweight prospect will not be offered a new contract.

Many claimed that Dana White was not a big fan of the fighter’s style of combat; as a result, he decided not to continue with Mokaev. But what if we tell you that he has now become more popular than other top fighters such as Dricus Du Plessis, Tom Aspinall, Robert Whittaker, and many others? Well, that is what it looks like after a recent post on Reddit that revealed how ‘The Punisher’ now has millions of fans.

A user by the name ‘MA-JA-HO’ recently took to the social media platform in bewilderment after they realized that the 13-0-0 fighter now has a whopping 1.8 million followers on his Instagram. This is a far cry from what many expected; after all, people like Dana White believed that Mokaev’s in-ring performance would not be liked by the fans and would bring major hate to the promotion. But instead, it seems like ‘The Punisher’ is more loved by fans than most fighters in the head honcho’s promotion.

This post was a major revelation for fans who did not understand the insane popularity of the MMA fighter. As a result, it didn’t take them much time to go to the comments to share their theories as to why so many people followed the fighter. So what could the reason be? Well, let’s find out by going through some of the comments.

Fans try to expose Muhammad Mokaev’s insane popularity

As soon as the post hit Reddit, fans quickly jumped on it with their theories. While Muhammad Mokaev is a good fighter, he did not reach the top of the UFC roster. He is not a vlogger nor provides content that is out of the ordinary and truly engaging for his fans. So how did he get 1.8 million followers? According to several users, it is because many of those followers are bot accounts bought by the fighter. Sharing their belief based on the lack of comments and likes Mokaev’s posts get, many users wrote in the comments, “It’s a ton of bots bloating the count and ruining his engagement,” “The answer is his manager paid for bots,” and “100% chance he’s bought followers.”

However, not every fan believed in this theory. Some others were of the belief that maybe the fighter earned real followers on his Instagram. But as we mentioned earlier, Mokaev does not upload content that many fans might not find very engaging; as a result, his engagement makes it look like he has bot followers. The fans wrote in the comments, “Guess folks aren’t too interested in the content he’s providing,” and “He is just as boring outside of the ring as he is inside of it.”

A set of fans also came in defense of the former UFC fighter’s popularity. According to them, Muhammad Mokaev was actually an exciting fighter to watch, and now it is a pity that they no longer get to see him fight in the top promotion of the world. Sharing their disappointment at Dana White’s decision, they wrote comments such as “Absolutely insane this man has gotten cut from the UFC; I would defos tune in to watch his fights,” and “Really miss his fights in the UFC.” Well, it sure looks like Mokaev is still managing to be a talking point among UFC fans. But what do you believe? Did Dana White make the right decision by letting him go? Let us know in the comments.