At just 23 years old, the world of MMA is already singing high praises for budding flyweight phenom Muhammad Mokaev. The young UFC star with a record of 12-0 is staking a stronger claim in Dana White’s promotion with each performance. The Dagestani also known as ‘The Punisher’ is already a highly decorated combat sports athlete. Now, what is the secret behind his stellar success?

Fresh from his win against Alex Perez at the start of March, he is one step closer to the UFC Flyweight title bout. He is set to fight Manel Kape at UFC 304 which is just around the corner and his training is in full swing. Ahead of his UFC fight let us dive into the specialization of the young fighter and where he trains.

Who is Muhammad Mokaev’s coach?

The Dagestani has trained with many coaches and among them are names like Oleg Druzhynets, Dean Garnett, Andrew Wood, John Hutchinson, Hickman Brothers, Eldar Eldarov, Renat Iusubov, and Terry Bridge. He trains at UFC Gym in Manama, Bahrain, as per the information from The National News, and is affiliated with the KHK MMA Team as per Tapology. The fighter had gone through a knee injury against Jafel Filho in March of 2023 but still sustained a victory.  Now the Dagestan-born British fighter is ready to fight Kape. Meanwhile, he was recently seen training with Shamil Abdulmedzhidov ahead of his bout.

The #5 ranked UFC Flyweight comes from the same place that is native to Khabib Nurmagomedov and this makes him even more noticeable to the fans of UFC. ‘The Eagle’ popularised the name of his home country in UFC and now Mokaev dreams of upholding the legacy. However, reports say that he does not want to associate himself with Russia. He and his father had to overcome extreme hardships in his home country after his mother passed away. Then they moved to the UK where he is settled now.

Khabib does coach the Dagestani fighters along with Javier Mendez at ‘American Kickboxing Academy’. However, Mokaev, who is affiliated with Bahrain’s KHK MMA Team trains elsewhere. While Mokaev might not train with Nurmagomedov, he respects him a lot. He spoke about how he was compared to ‘The Eagle’ because of his ground-and-pound style and revealed that he respected the Hall of Famer.

He does train extensively in the gym and back in 2022 he showed his state-of-the-art facilities at American Top Team. Before his fight with Charles Johnson in July 2022 he was training at ATT for two months. His fighting styles include wrestling, sambo, and striking. This has made him a formidable opponent and now he is standing at the precipice of the title bout. He might be fighting for the UK but he is not an English native.

Muhammad Mokaev: The Dagestani refugee who became a UFC star

The MMA stats are not inaccurate when they tell us that Mokaev fights out of the UK. However, the 23-year-old originally hails from Dagestan and immigrated to the UK after his mother passed away when he was 12. The famous Flyweight left Dagestan with his father and settled down in the UK but his fighting style is very similar to Dagestani wrestling and grappling. Mokaev has a lot of similarities with his senior Khabib Nurmagomedov. Apart from the fact that they have the same roots, the 23-year-old is also yet to face defeat in UFC.

He is now married to a doctor named Khava Eldarbekova and even bought a house as soon as he got his first bonus. His life started from scratch when he moved to the UK but then in 2015, everything changed. He fought his first amateur MMA card and Sheikh Khalid noticed him on Instagram. Khalid was on the lookout for MMA stars and the equestrian rider and triathlete, launched the KHK MMA team. Since then he has been associated with the team.

Now he is ready to fight Kape at UFC 304 and increase his chances of fighting for the title! Do you think he can win this fight? What do you think about his journey so far?