In a social media post, UFC flyweight Muhammad Mokaev demanded that the UFC remove Russia from his walk-out graphic.
The 22-year-old took to Twitter to appeal for his walk-out graphic to be changed. He asked the UFC to remove Russia as his place of birth, leaving just Dagestan.
He wrote: “I don’t like this! Please just keep Dagestan for me for my next walkout!”
Muhammad Mokaev on His Journey From Dagestan to England
Dagestan is the birthplace of many successful combat sports athletes, such as Khabib Nurmagomedov, Islam Makhachev, and Artur Beterbiev. Mokaev is also part of this list, growing up in the southern republic before migrating to the United Kingdom in 2012 with his father.
Speaking to RBC, ‘The Punisher’ briefly detailed his journey from Dagestan to the UK.
He said: “We moved to the UK and settled in Wigan. Here I went to college. My father and I moved by ourselves. My mother died back in 2012, and I don’t have any brothers and sisters.
“At first we lived in a refugee camp. It was hard, we lived on five pounds a day. There was only one kitchen, one bathroom for all the refugees.”
Quotes from RBC via Novye Izvestia
Coming off the back of an impressive win over Jafel Filho at UFC 286, the #12-ranked flyweight is looking to continue his unbeaten run and break Jon Jones’ record of becoming the youngest-ever UFC champion. He has recently called out Portuguese fighter Manel Kape on social media.
Although, breaking the record looked in doubt in the aftermath of the fight – with Filho almost forcing Mokaev to submit to a kneebar. However, an MRI scan revealed only a grade two partial MCL tear – with the Dagestani set to return to training just six to eight weeks after the scan.
What do you make of the comments from Muhammad Mokaev?
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
