For a while there, people thought the flyweight contest between Manel Kape and 23-year-old Muhammad Mokaev may never happen, but it was later confirmed. UFC 304 presents a great opportunity for the English native as he’s been moving ahead by tearing through his competition in Dana White‘s promotion. Meanwhile, let us explore Mokaev’s fighting background.

Muhammad Mokaev was born in the same region as Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev‘s hometown of Dagestan. But with his mother’s passing, his father decided to make the move to England. Mokaev’s journey is a unique one because his move to England saw him become a refugee in the country, but his sheer determination to make it happen in the fighting game brought him under the bright lights of Dana White’s promotion. It started with his decision to learn wrestling, which later propelled him to learn Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

All we know about Muhammad Mokaev’s BJJ credentials

It wasn’t until Muhammad Mokaev became a two-time British Freestyle Wrestling champion that he decided to learn BJJ, and he turned out to be outstanding in it. However, the tenth current youngest active UFC fighter hasn’t reached the black belt level just yet. Mokaev is currently holding a purple belt in BJJ, but despite that accolade, he still found a lot of success in the sport.

Muhammad Mokaev has a tremendous amateur MMA record of 23-0, but did you know he’s got achievements in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as well? Yes, the 23-year-showed his mettle when he took part in the ADCC UK Championships. If there was any doubt about how good the Russian-origin fighter was in BJJ, his prowess in the game helped him earn two back-to-back gold medals in 2018 and 2019.

‘The Punisher’ also found major success in continental tournaments as he’s a European Junior BJJ champion as well, and guess what? His wrestling and grappling skills helped him even edge past his opponents in the MMA game. So let’s take a look at how his MMA career has been so far.

A look into Mokaev’s MMA record

Muhammad Mokaev is 12-0 as a professional fighter, which means that he’s yet to bite the dust. Out of his twelve wins, four of them were unanimous decision wins, which shows that he never lets any fighter overpower him even through points. The most interesting thing about his record is that he has eight finishes to his name, including his UFC fights and the fights before he arrived at Dana White’s promotion.

Six out of ‘The Punisher’s eight finishes have come by submission, and in those submission wins, Muhammad Mokaev showed the range of moves he has to tap his opponent out. The rear-naked choke, guillotine choke, arm-triangle choke, and neck crank are the moves he’s used to beat his opponents so far, and who knows maybe we’ll get to see a few more moves in his upcoming fights.

He also told the UFC in a Q&A that his favorite submissions are the D’Arce choke, guillotine, and the rear naked choke. As for striking, the two-time IMMAF champion loves the left body kick, high kick, flying knees and the backhand.

Manel Kape may not be an easy opponent to beat given that he’s high on momentum with a 4-fight winning steak. It remains to be seen if Muhammad Mokaev can make it 13-0 this weekend in Manchester.