Tensions between Manel Kape and Muhammad Mokaev have reached a boiling point! Set to face-off against one another at UFC 304, a melee broke out between the two and their teams. A post shared on Instagram by RedCornerMMA it was reported that, “Team Mokaev and Team Kape got into a scuffle at the fighters’ hotel in Manchester. This comes amid numerous reports about their conflict earlier this year at the UFC PI.”

Earlier in July, Jean Silva had claimed that due to some social media back-and-forth between Kape and Mokaev, they got into it at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas. In a statement shared by MMAFighting, Silva claimed that Kape had “elbowed Mokaev in the head on the street” and claimed that ‘Starboy’ had also landed a headbutt in the altercation.

But in a surprising turn of events, Kape later confessed in an interview that, “We did not have any fight. People like to buy this fan story. This is the story. By the way, Jean is a good promoter. He’s a good seller at the end of the day. This makes the fight more exciting.” Kape also stated “Me and Mokaev are good…” but it appears that all of that has now gone out of the window ahead of their impending clash inside the Octagon!

The two also took shots at each other on social media following the altercation. Kape took to Instagram to share a story with a photo of Mokaev with a cut above his eyebrow with the caption, “my b*tch forever.” Mokaev, not one to be outdone, responded by sharing a screenshot of the brawl with a circle drawn on Kape’s face with the word “help” written above it. The incident has also drawn a flurry of reactions from the fans online and here’s a look at what the netizens had to say.

Manel Kape and Muhammad Mokaev’s hotel brawl leaves the fans divided in their response  

Fans pointed out that Manel Kape is notorious for getting into heated exchanges with other fighters as he was also involved in a war of words with former UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya at the UFC 293 pre-fight press conference. ‘Starboy’ later told MMAFighting that Adesanya attempted to apologize to him backstage but, “…he came to me backstage ‘Hey, no disrespect, we are Africa, we’re brothers, I said, ‘We are not brothers.”

“Bro Kape can’t get along with anybody”

The clash between Mokaev and Kape could lead to a potential no.1 contender spot for the winner in the flyweight division. As such, fans were left questioning why the bout, which was originally on the main card for UFC 304 was moved down to featured prelims and further down to the early prelims.

“This is the most important non title fight on this card and it’s on EARLY prelims btw…”

Some fans brought up that despite the heated build-up to the fight, concerns remain about Kape missing weight as his UFC Vegas 84 bout against Matheus Nicolau had to be scrapped by the promotion due to ‘Starboy’ missing the flyweight limit by 3.5 lbs.

“All this for kape to miss weight”

There was also an interesting theory put forth by another fan as they indicated that the UFC might have placed the fighters in close proximity to one another to maybe draw more attention to the card with their interactions but things may have gotten out of hand unexpectedly 

“Lol the UFC knows what it doing putting all the athletes in a small ahh hotel”

There were also divided opinions on who actually ‘won’ the brawl as some fans claimed that Team Mokaev looked to be the clear winners

“It’s look like team mokaev win”

But others were on the side of Team Kape as they put forth the opinion that it was Mokaev who came out worse in the brawl

“mokaev prolly got slept”

However, the fact that fighters were unable to restrain themselves to wait till the Octagon doors closed behind them to throw down was labeled as ‘childish’ by one fan

“Two childish team haha”

In conclusion, opinions are divided on who won the hotel brawl with criticism also being leveled against both teams for their behavior and the UFC for putting the two in the same hotel. As UFC 304 approaches, Manel Kape and Muhammad Mokaev’s bitter rivalry promises an explosive fight inside the Octagon with their animosity adding more stakes to this clash. Do you think Manel Kape will be able to end Mokaev’s undefeated run in the UFC? Let us know in the comments below!