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Muhammad Mokaev kept his undefeated 13-0 (1 no contest) record intact at UFC 304, but it wasn’t enough to keep his job this past weekend (July 27, 2024).

The top Flyweight contender revealed ahead of his grudge match with former RIZIN Bantamweight champion, Manel Kape, that their bout would be the last on his UFC contract. Ultimately, Mokaev’s unanimous decision victory wasn’t enough for the promotion to want to start new negotiations.

UFC CEO, Dana White, immediately shut down the idea of Mokaev returning to the promotion after the win, exclaiming that “PFL is going to get a great undefeated guy.” The comments and willingness from UFC’s boss to part ways with a surging 24-year-old top fighter caught many in the community off guard. White did allude to the many issues Mokaev presented in the lead up to the fight, such as the pre-fight scuffles with Kape, on top of its underwhelming nature.

According to multi-sport commentator, Ben Davis, there’s more to the story, says a longtime business partner close to Mokaev.

“Mokaev and his management team tried to check on what PFL would pay well before his last fight on the deal,” Davis’ source said in their screenshotted direct messages. “UFC got wind of this and considered it the last straw of why they weren’t going to re-sign. It’s why Dana mentioned, ‘PFL is getting a good undefeated guy.’

“Essentially, he was trying to use the number from PFL as leverage,” they concluded.

If Mokaev ends up signing with PFL, he’ll likely have to move up to the Bantamweight division as the promotion doesn’t currently have Flyweight. That’s unless they were to do singular bouts at 125 pounds just for the Manchester, England resident.

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Longtime UFC veterans Ovince Saint Preux and Ryan Spann are set to collide on Sept. 7 in a three-round light heavyweight bout at UFC Vegas 97.

MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin confirmed the news on Monday following an initial report by MMA Junkie.

Saint Preux (27-17) is a one-time challenger for the UFC interim light heavyweight belt. The 41-year-old veteran makes his way back down to the 205-pound division following a four-fight run at heavyweight that saw him win split decisions over Kennedy Nzechukwu and Mauricio Rua but suffer knockout losses to Philipe Lins and Tanner Boser.

A UFC fighter since 2013, Saint Preux has won 15 of his 27 octagon appearances and holds notable wins over Alonzo Menifield, Corey Anderson, and Nikita Krylov.

Spann (21-10) looks to right his ship after suffering three consecutive defeats at the hands of Krylov, Anthony Smith, and Bogdan Guskov. Since joining the UFC as a signee off Contender Series, Spann, 32, has won seven of his 12 promotional appearances, finishing the likes of Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Dominick Reyes, and Ion Cutelaba in the first round.

UFC Vegas 97 takes place at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas. A welterweight bout between contenders Gilbert Burns and Sean Brady is set to serve as the main event.

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Dana White still plans on bringing the UFC to both Spain and Africa.

Following Saturday’s lackluster card in Manchester, the outspoken CEO offered an update on his tentative plans to promote events in both Spain and Africa. White revealed that while he’s still working out details for an event in Africa, they’ve hit a bit of a snag when trying to book a venue in Ilia Topuria’s home country.

“The problem with Topuria and Spain is Spain’s venues are so backed up since COVID,” White told TNT Sports.”They have so many events going on. It’s hard to get a venue there. But when we can, we will definitely do that” (h/t Sportskeeda).

Immediately following Topuria’s second-round knockout of Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298, Dana White expressed interest in running an event at the 80,000-seat Santiago Bernabéu, home of Spain’s Real Madrid football team.

Dana White details plans to run shows in Africa

Dana White isn’t stopping there. He also plans to take the UFC to South Africa, home of current middleweight world champion Dricus Du Plessis. White also made it clear that he plans on bringing the promotion to the rest of Africa as well.

“I wanna go to Africa. We’re still working on an Africa fight; not just South Africa, but Africa,” White added. “You know, ’cause everybody will make the argument, ‘If you go to South Africa, that’s not really Africa.’ That’s Africa to me. But we’ll still look to go to other parts of Africa. It’s important to me.”

Du Plessis will put his 185-pound title on the line for the first time on Saturday, August 17 when the promotion heads back to Perth, Australia for UFC 305. In the main event of the evening, ‘Stillknocks’ will try to fend off former two-time titleholder Israel Adesanya who will be looking to make history as the division’s first-ever three-division champion.

DDP’ took the title home following a closely-contested split decision win over Sean Strickland at UFC 296 in January. Their clash in The Land Down Under will be Adesanya’s first fight since coming up short against Strickland nearly a year ago.

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Manel Kape is calling foul on his loss to Muhammad Mokaev at UFC 304.

While an argument could be made that Kape potentially deserved a decision win over Mokaev in a largely uneventful three-round fight, his beef isn’t with the judges, but rather a submission he applied while defending a takedown. In a pair of videos posted to Twitter on Monday, Kape showed off his submission attempt while claiming that Mokaev tapped out but the referee didn’t call it.

“You can clearly see the moment when Mokaev tap,” Kape wrote. “Before the fight we were warned by the same referee that any manipulation of tap or dirty games the judge would end the fight or have removed the point. But?? #taporfaketapitstap”

Mokaev eventually escaped the position and maintained control from the top.

The video evidence seems inconclusive, but Kape may have a better argument that Mokaev deserved to have a point deducted from another takedown attempt earlier in the fight.

After Mokaev wrestled Kape to the ground, he grabbed onto the shorts to secure the position and that caused referee Mike Beltran to pause the action. Beltran admonished Mokaev for the move and took away the position, but he didn’t penalize the 23-year-old fighter for the foul.

In the end, Mokaev secured a unanimous decision win to move to 7-0 in the UFC.

Chances are Kape won’t ever get a chance to avenge that loss either, as UFC officials announced that Mokaev won’t be re-signed to the roster following the bout. UFC 304 served as the final bout on Mokaev’s contract, and UFC CEO Dana White made it clear after the event that the company had no interest in bringing Mokaev back.

Mokaev’s UFC exit was preceded by an ugly week in Manchester after the undefeated 23-year-old openly admitted to asking Kape for a photo together before unleashing a sucker-punch that led to a brawl in the host hotel ahead of UFC 304.

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Watch the UFC 304 highlights video and recap from Saturday’s UFC 304 co-main event between Tom Aspinall vs Curtis Blaydes.

UFC 304 took place on Saturday, July 27th, at the Co-op Live in Manchester, England.

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Dana White has promised a show unlike any else he’s promoted when UFC 306 lands at the Sphere in Las Vegas on Sept. 14.

On Monday, pre-sale tickets kicked off for UFC 306, with Ticketmaster not only revealing the prices — with tickets currently running between $ 3,000 and $ 12,000 — but a first look at how the arena is set up for the historic event. The Sphere boasts a 160,000 square-foot LED screen that wraps around the entire interior of the arena.

With seating that should reach around 20,000 and the UFC CEO previously confirming plans for standing-room only tickets on the floor, UFC 306 should be a totally different experience from the typical show from the powerhouse promotion.

The unique Sphere setup as seen in the photo below shows that the octagon sits at one end of the arena almost like a theater stage, although there is limited seating behind the cage. The majority of seats stretch from there to the floor and then all the way up to the top of the arena.

The fighter walkouts will occur from the left and right side directly leading to the octagon, which again is a much different setup than the typical UFC event.

White said UFC has already spent $ 17 million to prepare for a “one and done” event at the Sphere, which continues the promotion’s new annual tradition of celebrating Mexican Independence Day.

The full UFC 306 card was also just revealed this past weekend, with bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley defending his title against Merab Dvalishvili in the main event while Alexa Grasso puts her flyweight title up for grabs against Valentina Shevchenko in the co-main event.

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