- Muhammad Mokaev is not a fan of Paddy Pimblett
- He backed Kai Kara-France to come out on top against Brandon Moreno at UFC 277
This past Saturday, Muhammad Mokaev extended his unbeaten record to eight wins with a dominant victory over Charles Johnson at UFC London. The star of the night was Paddy Pimblett, who defeated Jordan Leavitt on the main card in front of a roaring crowd. However, Mokaev was not impressed with Pimblett’s antics and bashed him at the post-fight press conference.
Muhammad Mokaev details origins of dispute with Paddy Pimblett
In an appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Mokaev explained the roots of his dispute with Pimblett. He revealed it to stem from an online exchange the two had where Pimblett criticized him for representing the UK given his Dagestani roots.
“I don’t like this guy. I don’t want to talk about him too much because even back in 2019, he said on Twitter, ‘this guy shouldn’t represent England. He’s not born here. He shouldn’t lift the British flag, he’s not born here.’
“He talked bad about Georgian people, talked about immigrants not being welcome to the UK, and stuff like this. And people support this bullsh*t guy, this is wrong.
“I was on Twitter, my coach and my team, nobody likes this guy so he moves to stuff like nationality, race, and all this that’s like lower mentality.
“When you can’t say something facts, something serious about somebody, you move to these facts like, touching somebody’s race or stuff like this when you have nothing to say about somebody.”
“The Punisher” is down to fight Pimblett at 145 lbs
Mokaev proposed an outing with “The Baddy” at featherweight.
“I’ll fight him at 145 lbs. If UFC makes this weight fight, I’ll fight him at 145 without cutting my weight. I’ll fight him and people don’t believe me but I’ll do whatever I want with him.”
The traditional 125-lb Mokaev revealed that he walked around at 145 lbs and wouldn’t need to cut any weight if the promotion was to make the fight happen.
Mokaev backed Kai Kara-France to win over Brandon Moreno
When asked to share his pick for the upcoming bout between former division champion Brandon Moreno and Kai Kara-France, Mokaev chose the latter.
“I think Kai Kara-France has better striking and Moreno doesn’t have that. He’s got like Mexican style boxing of closing the distance whereas Kai Kara-France has good kickboxing, keeping him outside, and Moreno doesn’t have wrestling to stop his striking.”
Mokaev is looking to move up in competition as he targets a top-15 matchup ahead.
