Manel Kape and Muhammad Mokaev put on quite a show even before UFC 304 started but the story inside the Octagon was the opposite. Their fight reached a boiling point even before entering the Octagon and when they did get into the cage, something unexpected happened. Mokaev did something unthinkable that put his career in jeopardy and now everyone is criticizing him including ‘Big’ John McCarthy. ‘The Punisher’ is now getting punished for his actions by none other than Dana White as well as other veterans.

In his recent appearance at ‘Weighing In’ with Josh Thompson, McCarthy spoke about the recent incidents and chastised the fighter.

Muhammad Mokaev gets backlash for his behavior at UFC 304

Mokaev (13-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) decided that it would be a good idea to blatantly grab Manel Kape’s shorts to avoid being pushed off. This was a clear foul in the eyes of the veterans and fans but did not receive any point deduction from referee Mike Beltran. On the other hand, McCarthy, who was also a referee and one of the founding members of the unified MMA ruleset, spoke to Thompson about it and said that he would have deducted points. He described Mokaev’s actions as disrespectful to UFC and the other fighters.  McCarthy also spoke about the referee and said, “Should Mike Beltran have given a warning? Or should he have taken points, there is no doubt, I would have taken points from him. Look you want to act like an idiot in my sport and do something to try to embarrass someone I am not just gonna let you get away with it.”

The commentator of Bellator MMA and co-host of ‘Weighing In’ then said that UFC was made with a lot of hard work from several people. What Mokaev did, was insulting to the promotion and the hard work of the people involved with UFC.  He further added, “Mike is in that position. He doesn’t want to affect the fight, but when you have someone who does something that disrespects the sport, you have gotta figure it out, you are disrespecting your opponent.  You are, but you are also disrespecting the sport, and what you are doing is exactly what Dana White is now showing. You are making the promotion look bad.”

The UFC head honcho was furious about what happened inside the Octagon and showed the flyweight the way out of UFC. Mokaev’s last fight was with Manel Kape and he won this via decision. This was his last fight according to the contract and White said that he would not re-sign a contract with the fighter again. Not only was this foul inside the Octagon a huge problem but there was a previous hotel brawl that is also into the mix.

Manel Kape and Muhammad Mokaev got into a hotel fight

Kape is known to get into heated exchanges with other fighters and his war of words with Israel Adesanya at UFC 293 is very well known. Now the clash between Mokaev and Kape also saw some huge tension and they even had a brawl at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas. In a statement shared by MMA  Fighting, Jean Silva said that Kape had elbowed Mokaev in the head and then ‘Starboy’ retaliated with a headbutt.

However, Kape confessed that there was no fight. He said, “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.” Meanwhile, the duo had taken shots at each other on social media. Kape shared a story on Instagram with a photo of Mokaev where he had a cut above his eyebrow with the caption, “My b*tch forever.” ‘The Punisher’ was not silent and replied with a screenshot of the brawl with a circle around Kape’s face writing, “Help”. 

Then they went on to fight inside the octagon at UFC 304 and then Mokaev tried to grab his opponent’s pants while fighting which is a foul in the eyes of the fans and some veteran fighters. However, he won by decision and this angered Kape as well as Dana White. The UFC decided to release him and this is bad news because PFL does not have a flyweight or even a bantamweight division meaning his only option is featherweight. Mokaev does not have many options left and the 23-year-old has his whole career left.

What do you think he is going to do? Tell us in the comments below.