Muhammad Mokaev won a second belt outside the UFC, then sent Dana White the receipt

Muhammad Mokaev took the ACBJJ 60 kg Grand Title in Istanbul on Sunday, nine minutes of grappling that ended on the judges’ cards. It is the second championship he has won since the UFC let him go in 2024 with an unbeaten record. The next day he posted a message tagging Dana White, and the argument it makes is harder to dismiss than a callout.

Key takeaways

Mokaev beat Moris Boleian by unanimous decision over nine minutes at ACBJJ 22, on August 30 at the ORA Arena in Istanbul, to take the ACBJJ 60 kg Grand Title.
It is his second title since the UFC released him in 2024 while he was 12-0, after the BRAVE CF flyweight belt he won with a head kick eight seconds into round two at BRAVE CF 100.
He is 17-0 in MMA at 26 years old, with five wins and four finishes in the two years since the release, and he is openly campaigning for a return.

Muhammad Mokaev took this one the slow way

Nine minutes, no shortcut

The finish did not come. Mokaev spent the full nine minutes on Moris Boleian and won a unanimous decision for the ACBJJ 60 kg Grand Title, at the ORA Arena in Istanbul on August 30. Grappling scored on points is not the highlight reel he usually sells, and that is part of what makes it a useful result: he has now won a championship in a discipline where his wrestling has nowhere to hide behind a knockout.

The weight is worth noting too. He competed at 60 kg, well under the 57 kg flyweight limit he fights at in MMA in name only, and he did it against a specialist in a specialist’s format.

A card the UFC could have run

ACBJJ 22 was not a small room. Zabit Magomedsharipov headlined it, returning after almost seven years away to outpoint ranked UFC featherweight Youssef Zalal. Former UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad submitted Kerim Engizek with a rear-naked choke on the same card, and Brendan Allen defended an ACBJJ All-Stars title with a heel hook.

That matters to the story. Mokaev did not pick up a belt in an empty gym. He picked one up on a night where current and former UFC champions and contenders were competing next to him, in front of the same audience.

The release that never got a clean explanation

12-0, and out

Mokaev left the UFC in 2024 after beating Manel Kape at UFC 304, a win that took him to 12-0 and left him unbeaten inside the promotion. Fighters get cut on losing streaks. Getting cut while undefeated is rare enough that the reason becomes the story, and the reason offered publicly was that he was difficult to work with rather than anything about his record.

The line Mokaev now throws back at Dana White is his own rendering of what he was told: that he could go and become champion somewhere else. It should be read as Mokaev’s account rather than a verified transcript. What is not in dispute is what he did with it.

What he did with the two years

At BRAVE CF 100, on November 7 2025 in Bahrain, he took the flyweight title by landing a head kick eight seconds into the second round on Gerard Burns. That moved him to 15-0. He is 17-0 now, with five wins and four finishes since the release, and he is 26 years old.

Add the ACBJJ belt and the ledger reads: two championships, in two organisations, in two disciplines, in the time it takes most released fighters to rebuild one win streak. Whatever the UFC’s reasoning was in 2024, the sporting half of it has not aged well.

Dana said two years ago, 'he can become champion somewhere else.' Yes, I became Brave CF champion. I became ACB jiu-jitsu champion. I won five fights, four finishes within two years, staying busy, staying active and showing the world why I'm the best flyweight in the world.
— Muhammad Mokaev, in a message posted on X on August 31

What a second belt outside the UFC actually buys him

Rankings do not travel

Here is the uncomfortable part. Neither of these titles moves him in the UFC flyweight rankings, because those rankings only count fights inside the organisation. A fighter can be the most active and most decorated 125-pounder outside the promotion and still be, on paper, nowhere. That is the wall Mokaev is arguing against, and no amount of winning outside knocks it down on its own.

What winning outside does do is remove every sporting excuse for not signing him back. It is one thing to leave an unbeaten prospect on the market. It is another to leave a two-belt champion there while he keeps posting finishes and keeps saying so publicly.

The part he controls

He is 26. He has not lost. He fights often, which is the single hardest thing to fake and the thing matchmakers actually value. If a return happens, it happens because he made himself the cheapest and most obvious solution to a booking problem, not because a post landed.

Full records, finish rates and career timelines for Muhammad Mokaev and every fighter on this story are in the FightHub app, updated as results come in. Download it and follow the flyweight division from both sides of the UFC roster, not just one.